#at least Chapter 4 shouldn't have this problem...

[keets-writing-corner]

I have bad news friendsos. My aforementioned April 25th goal date of posting chapter 3 of my Prequel Fic is uhhh most likely not going to be met? IM STILL GOING TO TRY I PROMISE I'M GOING TO TRY! but omg chapter 3 is so bulky and tanky it's over 30k words (aka that's the size of chapter 2 for reference) aaaaand I'm still not done. This upcoming week is going to be a rather full for me. I will have SOME freetime but not a lot. Again, I'm going to try to make it to that 25th deadline but I'm not so sure I'll make it. Realistically speaking it might be more towards... eh april 30? hopefully?

Anyways, to make up for it, I've decided to give you guys an extended teaser of the beginning of the chapter. I did already show this a little bit in another post, but to make up for the delay I decided to give you guys everything I have written for the very beginning up until we reach the first asterix

But uhhh yeah! I'm sorry! Plz enjoy the sneak peek!

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High pitched ringing was all Lilith could perceive at first. Eventually, as time passed, she became aware of more things. The air smelled foul. She was laying atop something soft, but underneath the soft layer was the hardest rock she’d ever felt. As far as sounds, it seemed like there was a faint rumbling in the distance, but nothing extravagant. 

Blearily, she managed to open her eyes. 

Lilith was face to face with Lucifer who seemed to be unconscious, just as she had been moments ago. The soft layer she was on was his wing, with another one lying limp on top of her. 

She sat up slowly, groaning. Her body ached and her joints felt sore. The wings that were on top of her, slid off. 

There was something grey drifting down from the sky, and apparently, she and Lucifer had been laying there long enough that a thin layer of it had started to build up on them. Well, mostly Lucifer. Up until now, she had been safely shielded by his wings. 

Lilith gave him a nudge, “Lu, wake up,” she told him before moving to stand herself. 

The sky was a deep blood red. Any clouds that formed were either grey or black. The ground too, the harsh rocky terrain she and Lucifer were on was also a dark grey. It was now that she realized, she and Lucifer were dead center in a crater of sorts. 

That’s when the previous events all rushed back to her. Heaven attacked them and cast them down into, what was it the elders called it? Hell? Lucifer desperately shielded and protected her from the vicious onslaught and then from the impact of the fall itself. 

Now with the full context, Lilith rushed back to Lucifer who still remained on the ground, “Lu?!” Lilith pushed back the wings that were covering his body, and unveiled multiple wounds from heaven’s attack. The blood had long since dried, and Lilith realized she too was covered in Lucifer’s blood. His wings were also covered in his blood as heaven viciously skewered them to prevent him from flying back out. His once flowing robes were all but tatters barely clinging to his form.

Panic now fully setting in as she realized he looked even worse than when he had fallen from heaven and wasn’t even stirring, not even a little. She couldn’t even hear him breathe raspy breaths like he had last time.

“Lu! Say something!” Lilith immediately cradled him. 

His head rolled back limply as she pulled him to her. Lilith needed to readjust her grip on him in order for his head to lean against her torso gently. 

He had protected her… From everything. But the final blow had been the fall. If what little Lilith had experienced from the fall due to his protection had been enough to temporarily knock her unconscious and make her sore then… What must it have felt like to take the full brunt of it?? 

Tears began to build up in her eyes as she recalled him assuring her that she’d be okay. He had been unable to stop the crash, so he did everything he could to make sure she was going to be safe. Suddenly, it made sense why he had repositioned himself underneath her, to cushion her fall with his own body. 

“Lu?!” she called again, “Lucifer!” 

He remained still and unresponsive. 

Lilith’s breath hitched in her throat. He couldn’t be- he wouldn’t- this couldn’t have… killed him??? 

Lilith pulled him tighter to her, choking back tears and shook with rage against heaven. Why push her and him into that crevice?? All this because he wanted to help her and Eve but that was against the rules apparently?? Weren’t they supposed to be good?! Weren’t they supposed to be kind?! And what could she have done while the elders attacked? She had been powerless to help! Worse… They used her to lure him into the hole. As Lilith held him and choked back sobs, it occurred to her that he still felt warm. 

The faintest, slightest bit of hope fluttered in her, and she pulled away to get a better look at Lucifer. He still was completely still, and unresponsive but… maybe…

Lilith leaned her ear against his chest, hoping for what seemed to be the impossible. 

Faintly. 

Very

very 

faintly 

She could hear it. A heartbeat. Even fainter, she could hear a weak rattling breath from deep in his chest. 

He was alive…

He was still alive!

Lilith pulled him into a hug, cupping the back of his head and holding him tightly. Her tears now weren’t from grief but relief. “You’re going to be okay,” she whispered to him, “It’s going to be okay…”

They needed to get better bearings. Being at the center of the crater largely obstructed their view. Lilith stood with Lucifer in her arms. She had never tried full on carrying him before. Perhaps she thought that she couldn’t but now he seemed impossibly light. Maybe it was his small frame.  

As she stood, she quickly noticed a problem. Lucifer’s wings were going to get tangled with her legs the way she was holding him. Lilith crouched back down and readjusted Lucifer, draping him over her back instead, intending to carry him piggyback style. His wings were going to drag on the ground, and Lilith wished they didn’t have to, but she had no way of gathering them together. She knew he could change their size as he wanted, but right now they were stuck being big. He clearly wasn’t going to wake up any time soon. 

Upon pulling his arms around her neck, she realized that his arms and hands had been burnt black. Had this been from that wicked blast the elders had used on him? She gripped one of his hands and rubbed his knuckles gently. Rage towards heaven once again filled her. 

Lilith gave herself a shake. Now wasn’t the time. 

She climbed out of the crater as fast as she could while still holding onto Lucifer. When she reached the top, well… she wasn’t sure that was all that much better. The grey substance falling from the sky was covering everything. And the land was completely barren. The only variation to be seen at all was hills and rocky mountains in the distance. 

She hated being underneath this falling… what even was it? Upon a quick sniff it smelled like smoke. Lilith frowned and stared at the sky. Was it raining ash?? 

Glancing over to Lucifer’s face on her shoulder,  Lilith realized now wasn’t the time to figure out what was going on. She needed to find them some shelter from this. It’d be great if there were trees but she couldn’t see any. Maybe she could find a nice ledge or something that could protect them? 

Lilith set out walking towards the rocky hills. Surely, she’d be able to find a ledge somewhere that could shelter them. 

She walked. 

A million thoughts ran through her head. What were they going to do now? There weren’t any plants as far as she could tell, what could she eat? Maybe she’d have to look for plants. Surely this place wasn’t completely barren. 

She walked.

How long would Lucifer be out for this time? In Eden it had taken him a couple days before he began showing signs of regaining consciousness, and became fully awake about ten-fourteen days later. The air here felt harsh, Lilith could tell, and Lucifer had been beaten harder than last time. He was in a worse state than last time, and Lilith had a hunch that this place was going to make it harder for him to heal.

She walked. 

A million feelings raced through her heart. She was scared. She didn’t know what this place was. Lucifer was unconscious and couldn’t provide any answers if he even knew them. She was worried about him. What if he didn’t wake up? What if he never recovered from these wounds? What if it had all been too much? She was angry. Angry at heaven for putting them in this situation. She felt grief, grief at the loss of her home, and the loss of her friend Eve. Would she ever see Eve again? Would she ever see blue skies again? And also… a sense of loss of herself. She no longer felt innocent. Some part of herself had been lost in that whole ordeal, and she didn’t know how to cope with it. 

She walked. 

The ground here was rough. Her feet were already growing sore and irritated, only accustomed to the soft grasses and gentle dirt of Eden. Even the air felt hostile as every breath irritated her throat, and her eyes stung. 

She walked.

Hours passed and Lilith roamed still. Exhaustion clung to her, but she refused to stop until she could find some sort of shelter for the both of them. An anxious thought had entered her mind while she walked, and it was that surely all of this ash landing on Lucifer’s open wounds couldn’t be good for him. 

She walked. 

Hunger clawed at her, but worse than hunger was thirst. She also hadn’t spotted any water. Her throat was already raw from breathing in the air, but now it craved water and there was none to be found. Even Lucifer, who had felt light earlier, was beginning to weigh on her. In addition to all of the emotions Lilith had been feeling before, she felt despair begin to creep up. 

The weakest groan escaped Lucifer’s lips. 

Lilith glanced over to him, “Lu?” 

He struggled to open his eyes. At most he managed small slits for two seconds before they quickly closed again, as if they were too heavy to hold open. He wasn’t moving, Lilith seriously doubted that he even could, but she could feel him tensing against her in distress.

“Lu, it’s okay. I’m taking care of you,” Lilith told him, “You can rest.” 

“Lil…th?” he could barely choke out her name. 

Lilith reached with her hand and cupped his cheek. “I’m right here Lu,” she comforted him, “don’t strain yourself.” 

“Areyou…” he had to pause, clearly speaking was not only taking a monumental effort for him, but it was also painful, “areyouokay?” he splurted out as quickly as he could manage in one breath. It had been accompanied by some drops of blood.

Lilith felt a rush of mixed emotions. She was touched that Lucifer was here, barely awake or aware, couldn’t even move, full of wounds, having lost a lot of blood, spitting out more, and his first thought upon brushing with consciousness was whether or not she was okay. She wanted to hold him forever in her arms. And once again, she was visited by rage. Rage that heaven would even think to cast out someone as caring and as kind hearted as he was. And… rage that she had been powerless to do anything about it.

“I’m okay,” She leaned her head against his, “I’m okay,” she had to keep her voice from wavering. She didn’t want him to know how close she was to crying, that would only distress him. He needed to rest. 

“Mmm,” was all he managed to say in response and Lilith felt his body relax against her. 

“Just rest Lu,” Lilith whispered to him, but it seemed she hadn’t even needed to tell him. Just hearing that she was okay seemed to calm him enough to drift back into unconsciousness. 

Lilith nuzzled her face in his hair a moment longer, his brief brush with consciousness giving her a brave second wind. Now more determined than ever, Lilith picked up the pace. 

She cleared another hill and then she spotted not just a huge ledge jutting out from the side of one that could shelter them from the ash, but also a little pond filled with water was right next to it. Lilith climbed underneath the ledge and as gently as she could, laid Lucifer down. He didn’t stir in all that time. 

Lilith gently rubbed her thumb against his lips, cleaning the blood he had spat out, and then stared at it on her finger. An idea formed in her head, one that made her feel guilty but it had to be done. She bent down and kissed his forehead before climbing down to the water. 

The water was murky and grey, the ash didn’t help. Biting her lip, Lilith dipped her thumb with Lucifer’s blood, and just like it had back in Eden all those years ago, the water suddenly glistened and cleared, having been purified by his blood. 

Lilith almost hungrily gulped up the water. She tried to get Lucifer to drink but he wouldn’t even respond to her touch. She ended up using it to clean themselves from the ash and blood. As long as Lucifer had some wounds, she’d be able to drink this water. She felt guilty about it but it was all she could do. 

Lilith laid down and then pulled Lucifer on top of her. The ground was hard, and the furthest thing from comfortable, but she was exhausted, and she refused to let Lucifer lay on the hard ground when she could cushion it for him. It was the least she could do after all…

Things were bad. 

Lucifer was unconscious. She had no idea where she was. There was no food. The ground and the air were harsh. She was sore and tired.

But, they were alive. 

Lilith pulled him tighter, blinking tears out of her eyes. They would make it. She’d make sure they’d make it.

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alright that's all for now! I might be persuaded to give more sneakpeeks and/or answer chapter 3 questions if any of you want more but uhh yeah!

sorry again!

[animasola86]

LOST & FOUND 🫂 CH9

Mommy takes you to the Pet Cafe. But instead of fluffy animals, you meet a bunch of half-naked girls wearing masks, collars and tail plugs...

soft!Daddy!dom x Mommy!domme x little girl!reader

WARNINGS: F!Reader insert. NSFW! Explicit sexual content. Mommy/Daddy kink. Dd/Md/lg dynamics. Pet names. Dom/sub. Mistress/pet. A hint of dubcon. Sex toys under clothing. Anonymous sex. Cunnilingus. Anal play/insertions. Belly bulge. Vibrators. Butt plugs. (More notes under the cut!)

WORDS: 5.7k 🔷️ READ ON AO3 🔷️ 1–2–3–4–5–6 7–8–9–10–11–12

A/N: RECAP: Reader (we call her Pumpkin), in her 20s, has hair and female genitalia, suffers from depression and anxiety, and has agreed to become the little girl/submissive to a couple she's supposed to call Mommy and Daddy, who are in their early/late thirties. ADDITIONAL WARNING: As mentioned in the warning tags above, this chapter has a hint of dubcon, maybe even a tad noncon. Mommy is a bit more hands-on with Pumpkin this time, and while consent isn't given officially, remember: this is fiction and it's all part of the strange mixture of dom/sub/caregiver/little/BDSM-inspired relationship dynamics monster I created here. Pumpkin is fine, she likes it, do not worry about her!

Chapter 8 🔷️ Chapter 9 🔷️ Chapter 10

Your stomach churned a little when you watched Mommy. Sitting beside you, her hand still warm between your legs, she looked out of the window of the car, smiling softly. Somehow it wasn't her usual smile. There was something dark about it. You probably shouldn't have mentioned Daddy. But you couldn't help it, he was on your mind, if you wanted to or not.

And Mommy taking you to a sex shop run by a tall, gorgeous woman with a voice that rivaled Daddy's low timbre (not to mention the apparently giant cock hiding under her tight skirt), hadn't made it any easier to forget about him. Though that little vibrator moment had been a nice break from thinking for a while.

It was confusing, to say the least, to have to balance between giving Mommy and Daddy equal amounts of your attention. For the longest time in your life, you had thought you were only attracted to men, despite the few experiments with your girl friends, but now that Mommy was a part of your existence and with all the things she'd done to and with you already, your mind was in proper shambles, and figuring out who you were attracted to more was difficult.

But then again: did you have to choose? No. They made it pretty clear that they wanted to share you, and while you thought neither of them had a problem with that, you did catch some strange looks from Mommy since you agreed to be their little girl. Was she jealous? She shouldn't be, you liked her just the same, or so you thought. But looking back, it did seem a little unfair.

She had been the one to pluck you off the street, to give you food, to invite you into their home, to offer you a new chance in life. And the first thing you did when you saw Daddy for the first time was completely forget about her. And then after that long shopping and makeover day with her, where she'd done everything to make you feel good about yourself, you came back to the house and fell right into Daddy's arms, ignoring her all over again.

Then there was the night you spent together, when you woke up with her wrapped around you, both of you naked, and you still had no idea what had happened – and instead of figuring it out, asking her about it, you let Daddy whisk you away into the shower and later into the woods, forgetting about the instance quickly.

You felt bad. You never intended to treat her any less, and maybe it hadn't been entirely your fault, but you felt as if you could have done more, throw yourself into her arms, cling to her, show her affection instead of Daddy, or at least equal amounts.

Inhaling deeply, you looked down at her hand nudged between your legs, unmoving, warm, a gentle pressure to your core. The motion was hesitant, but eventually, you placed your hand on top of hers, spreading your legs a little more. You looked at her, waiting for her to meet your gaze, and when she did, there was a bit of surprise on her beautiful face.

Before you could figure out what to say or do, though, the car rolled into a stop, and Mommy looked away again, pulling her hand from beneath yours.

“We're here,” she said and unbuckled first your and then her seat belt, motioning you to follow her. You climbed out of the car after her, your legs a little shaky. She held her hand out and you grabbed it quickly, still watching her, hoping to convey how sorry you were. For what exactly you weren't sure, you couldn't really name it, it was just a heavy feeling in your guts.

But she didn't really acknowledge you long enough for you to steer any kind of conversation into that direction, she just pulled you along, towards an unassuming door on the back of a large brick building. Right, the Pet Cafe, she had called it. There was a small electronic display mounted to the wall, and she held up her watch to it. A beep sounded and the heavy metal door opened with a hiss.

She quickly pulled you through it, closing it behind you. But instead of following the long, dimly lit hallway deeper into the belly of the building, she stopped, finally looking at you. There was a strange expression on her face, a sinister smile and a glint in her eyes.

“I have a challenge for you, mi amor,” she said quietly, pushing her hand into her purse.

You watched her nervously, a sudden throb crashing through your core as she retrieved the pink vibrator. She rubbed it between her hands, then held it out to you on her palm. You frowned.

“I want you to hold this for me for the rest of the day,” she told you, tilting her head. Your eyes flicked from hers down to the item, and when you reached out to touch it, she chuckled softly. “But not with your hands, silly.”

You stared back at her, confusion washing over you. It took you a long moment to realize what she wanted from you. She took your hand and placed the toy onto it, her fingers gliding along its egg-shaped form down to the thick tail with the little button at the end.

“I want you to get used to having something in your pretty pussy, baby. It's completely natural, nothing weird about it. I know you can do it,” she cooed, rolling the vibe on your palm. “Come on, stick it in.”

Your eyes widened. Panic surged through you. Here? Wherever here was, but it felt too public to do something like this. And in front of her? Sure, she'd had her fingers in your cunt before, had seen you naked on multiple occasions, but somehow her scrutinizing gaze felt different now. A little condescending, challenging, cruel. You swallowed hard.

And it wasn't just the thought of having something inside you, but to use your own fingers to do so felt a lot stranger than you'd imagined. You took a shuddering breath and curled your fingers around the toy, turning it between them, aligning it just right. It wasn't particularly big or long, but you knew you'd feel it, you felt it before after all.

Throwing a last glance at Mommy, you pulled your dress up with your free hand and nudged your panties to the side just enough. It was a very awkward position, so you had to spread your legs and bend your knees a little, leaning over yourself (making it even more awkward) to fulfill Mommy's wish (but the strangest thing was that you didn't question it once or even tried to protest, you just did it, because she said so).

With your heart beating in your throat, you pushed the rounded toy between your labia until your cunt gave way and swallowed the object, sucking it in lazily. You gave it another nudge to push it further, and a shudder crashed through you. Holding onto the tail that was sticking out of you now, you straightened up, biting your lip as you looked at Mommy.

Instead of praising you, she stepped in and suddenly turned you around, a hand on your back as she made you bend over. You felt her flip up your dress, exposing your rear before she pulled down your panties. “Mommy!” you whined quietly, trying to squirm away, your hands braced on the wall.

“Stay still,” she ordered, her voice harsher than before.

You froze immediately, breathing harder, your eyes watering. She felt between your legs and grabbed the toy's tail, pulling it back, the vibrator shifting inside you. When she clicked the button a few times, you flinched badly and had to force yourself to remain where you were, your heart thundering inside your chest as the vibrations pulsed through you.

She amped it up all the way, a steady buzz deep inside you, but instead of letting go and readjusting your panties, she rubbed the thicker end of the tail between your ass cheeks, and then –

“Mommy, no!” you shrieked when she pressed the silicone against your puckered hole. “Not there, please!” you wailed.

But she didn't listen, just pushed harder against your tight muscles. You wanted to sink into the floor, shame crashing over you, a strange pressure and pain surging into your shaking limbs, as well as an unfamiliar tingle that didn't feel as bad but still embarrassing to admit to.

She had one arm around your stomach, holding you against her, her legs keeping yours in place. She kept prodding, a soft sigh escaping her. “What a tight bum you have,” she whispered. “I can't wait to fully stretch you out.”

You shivered, fighting tears now. A croaked squeak slipped from your throat when she eventually managed to push the other end of the vibe into your ass. You didn't want to think about it, not register the strange feeling. It wasn't big by any means, but it didn't belong there, it felt wrong. Your muscles clenched around it, as did your cunt around the vibrator.

She rubbed her hand between your ass cheeks before giving one of them a gentle slap that made you shriek and flinch. Then she leaned down to pull your panties back up, adjusting them so the toy wouldn't be able to slip out.

Her hands rested on your waist then as she leaned over you, brushing her lips against your neck. “My good girl, so brave, do you think you can handle this, hm?”

You swallowed, blinked away a few tears. “Yes, Mommy,” you whispered, squeezing your eyes shut, trying to ignore the constant buzz and clenching of your muscles, the subtle weight of the object inside you. As humiliating as this felt, you had to do it for her, wanted to do it for her. You owed her this much, and more.

She helped you straighten up and fixed your dress, rubbing her hands along your sides. “Come take a few steps,” she offered, holding out her hand.

You took it and moved, but as soon as you did, you felt a strange sensation, the toy rubbing inside you, both ends pulling onto each other, shifting and nudging against you.

“Just hold onto it, I know you can do it,” she said softly, leading you a few more steps down the hallway. “Keep it nice and tight down there. Yes, like that, good, look at you go, you're doing it.”

Her praise helped a little, and you realized it wasn't as bad. Your panties sat snug enough to keep the item in place, so you didn't have to fear for it to slip out. You tried to focus onto easing your breathing and your rapidly beating heart, and once you reached the end of the hallway, you walked a little bit more normal again.

Your eyes fell onto a sign on the wall. The Pet Cafe. Oh, you'd forgotten about that. Now, you didn't know what you expected (maybe one of those cafes full of cats and dogs and other animals considered pets?), but it surely wasn't a large room nestled into a windowless building with dim lights, filled with tables and chairs and couches – mostly occupied by a bunch of half-naked girls.

After opening the unassuming door, Mommy pulled you into the cafe, and you couldn't help but stare, the buzzing toy inside you suppressed for now. There were girls, of all shapes and sizes, in black leather masks that covered only their eyes and foreheads, with large bunny ears, pointy cat ears, floppy dog ears. They were wearing shiny high heels, black stockings and garter belts, lacy bras that barely covered anything. Thick leather bands adorned their necks. Their hair was done up in twin tails or little buns on the side of their heads.

And as your eyes raked over them when they walked about carrying trays of drinks or food, you noticed they all had tails, some long and bushy, some thin or thick, some fluffy balls of white fur – and they sat right between their ass cheeks. The little nub in your own ass twitched as you clenched your muscles around it, realizing they were wearing butt plugs – and no underwear, their smooth sexes exposed to the air around them.

Heat crashed into your face, and you were glad the lighting was so low. You pressed closer to Mommy, who squeezed your hand and looked at you with a smile. You tried to focus on her, somehow impressed by how many niche sex-related establishments she knew and frequented. Before you could ask her about it, a bunny girl approached you, bowing deep as Mommy turned her attention to her.

“Welcome back, Mistress,” she said quietly. “What can I do for you today?”

You frowned at the name the girl had given your Mommy, but you were also no longer surprised by much anymore. Apparently she was a regular in this place.

“Hello Bunbun,” she greeted the girl, reaching out a hand to gently grab her chin and squeeze it. The girl smiled, blinking behind her mask. “I'd like a table in the back, a coffee and a water, and tell Kitty to come over with the Long Boy.”

“Will do, Mistress, please follow me,” the girl named Bunbun said and bowed her head again, her long leather ears flopping down at the motion, before she slipped from Mommy's grip with another smile, clicking away on her high heels, her hips swaying, the little pompom tail bouncing between her round ass cheeks.

You stared after her, still quite confused about whatever was going on. Mommy squeezed your hand and pulled you along as you followed the half-naked girl to the back of the room, where a small table was settled between a brick wall covered in ivy and an intricate partition screen. Two chairs faced each other. You were motioned to one, the other was pulled out for Mommy. She sat down with a smile and nodded at Bunbun, who excused herself to prepare the order.

You sat down slowly, fully aware of the toy inside you again. At first it felt weird, your body weight pushing the buzzing object deeper, but you soon adjusted, trying to ignore the constant vibrations and the way your muscles wouldn't stop clenching. But you still couldn't help shifting on your seat, your thighs trembling a little. You focused on Mommy on the other side of the round table, who had crossed her legs and tapped her long fingernails on the wooden tabletop, watching you a little impassively, with only a tiny spark of amusement twinkling in her dark eyes.

Only a few minutes later, Bunbun came back carrying a tray with a coffee cup and a tall water, setting both down on the table. Behind her stood another girl, one with a cat mask and a long black tail hanging down between her legs. She was rather short, maybe even shorter than you, had long black hair in tight braids framing her half-hidden face. She had her hands behind her back, holding something you couldn't see.

Before the bunny girl left, she bowed her head, seemingly waiting for something. “Take Kitty's tail, Bunbun,” Mommy said quietly, while you watched the scene with confused interest. Bunbun walked around the other girl who bent over a little, and you heard a little exhale when one girl pulled at the other girl's tail, the plug (a rather big one, long and wide, now that you thought about it) dangling off the other side.

They had to walk around with those things up their butts? You shivered just thinking about it, feeling the tiny nub pressed into your own, which already felt like too much. Chewing on the inside of your cheek, you kept observing the girls. Bunbun bowed again, walking away with the cat girl's tail in her hand, while the girl in the cat mask knelt down in front of Mommy, her head bowed as well, the object she'd held behind her back now resting on her lap. You still couldn't quite see what it was from this angle.

It was a strange sight, this kneeling girl, so obedient, yet so provocative in her lingerie, but Mommy acted as if it was the most normal thing in the world. She also seemed rather familiar with the girls to begin with. You watched her – flinching when she suddenly met your gaze, the twinkle back in her eyes.

“Give Kitty your panties, mi amor,” she told you, and you stared at her, all color draining from your face as something cold settled in your stomach.

“What?” you gasped.

“You heard me, baby,” she said pointedly, her smile faltering a little.

“But –”

She cleared her throat, her eyes narrowing and darkening as she fixated you, her lips pressing into a thin line. “Do as I tell you,” she said quietly.

The cold spread through your limbs, while heat shot into your eyes as tears welled up inside them. You'd never seen Mommy like this, so dominant, so demanding, so not caring or nice or gentle. It was strange and hurt deep inside you, but it also made your cunt clench around the buzzing toy, and before you knew it, you shifted on your seat, awkwardly pulling your panties down your legs, ignoring the tear rolling down your cheek.

Once you bunched up the fabric in your fist, the girl with the cat ears turned to you, shuffling on her knees, holding out one hand. You couldn't look at her, just dropped your underwear into her palm and stared back down at your hands clenched around the hem of your dress. You still noticed how the girl shoved your panties under the lace of her bra.

“Turn around, Kitty,” Mommy said, making you look up. The girl did as she was told, shuffling on the floor, half hidden under the table, her backside to Mommy, her head close to your knee. As she turned, she handed the object back to Mommy, who placed it fully visible on the table next to her coffee cup. Your eyes widened as you stared at it.

It was a large silicone dildo, long and black, a double-ended one, both ends shaped like the head of a cock. You swallowed dryly at the sight of it. Under the table, Kitty, the girl with the cat ears, shuffled into position, and when you suddenly felt her hands on your knees, gently but firmly pulling them apart, you scooted back in your chair that scraped loudly over the floor before standing up awkwardly.

“Mi amor,” Mommy addressed you with a sigh. “Behave, okay? Be a good girl now. Let Kitty do her job. You'll enjoy it, don't worry.”

You stared at her with wide eyes, unable to process her words. “I... no! I... I don't understand... what... what is going on? What is this place? Why –”

“Breathe, baby girl, relax,” she said, leaning over the table to touch your shoulder and push you back into your chair with an unfamiliar force. You slumped down, a little twitch crashing through you as you put pressure on the toy stuck inside you. “This is the Pet Cafe, and these are my pets. These girls work for me, they can make the best cup of coffee in town and their little tongues can do wonders, believe me. A good place to wind down and relax and let your worries behind. I thought you'd appreciate it...”

You furrowed your eyebrows, still struggling to understand. The girl named Kitty moved closer, her hands once more finding your knees, this time she really grabbed them, keeping you in place. You stared down at her, finding her eyes behind her mask.

“It'll be alright,” she whispered barely audible. “I won't hurt you.”

“B-but... do... do you really... want this? Why are you doing this?” you mouthed back.

Kitty smiled. “I do want this, I love it. There's nothing better than dipping my tongue into a sweet cunt, and yours looks so pretty...”

You looked away, your whole face aflame by now. She pressed between your legs, spreading them further, her eyes raking over your mound. You felt exposed and very uncomfortable. The sheer amount of people staring at your crotch over the last days was really concerning. And yet you couldn't help the heat settling low in your stomach, the tension, the clenching of your muscles around the toy. It was wrong, it felt wrong, but you couldn't deny feeling very aroused by it also.

Your wavering gaze returned to Mommy, who had shifted on her chair, her long legs, still crossed, turned to the side while she slid her hand up and down the long dildo. You tried to relax into your own chair, muttering a weak “Okay”, letting the girl between your legs do her thing, whatever that was. Your hands clenched around the edge of the table, your chest rising and falling faster.

You flinched badly when you felt Kitty's warm tongue on the inside of your thigh, a wet sensation that slowly traveled higher until she licked a long stroke up your entire slit. You whimpered under the sensation, squeezing your eyes closed.

“It's alright, baby, let it happen,” Mommy whispered.

You nodded, not daring to open your eyes just yet. The girl between your legs continued, her hands rubbing up and down your thighs as she licked and lapped at your cunt, soft hums and moans vibrating against you. And somehow the doubts dissipated, your head emptying as all you felt was her warm tongue and gentle licks. Your eyelids fluttered open, and you met Mommy's soft smile.

“Good girl,” she mused, watching you closely, occasionally taking a sip from her coffee. The hand that held the dildo had vanished under the table, and when you felt Kitty gasping against your crotch, you had an idea of where it had disappeared into. A deep shudder crashed through you. Mommy moved her hand, gave a push, and that push sent the girl into you with a groan.

Between licking you and getting impaled by a long dildo, she fumbled her mask off her face, allowing her to fully press it between your legs, her nose rubbing at your hooded clit as she pressed her lips against your labia, her tongue lapping along your entrance, teasing at the toy stuck inside you. You felt her teeth scraping over the silicone, tugging on it, the constant buzz only one of many sensations crashing over you.

This is so bizarre, you thought between quietly mewling and struggling to stay still on your chair. How did you end up in a strange kink cafe full of naked girls wearing butt plugs, with one of them licking at your cunt, while Mommy was playing with the girl's ass? What wrong turn did you take to get here? Was it a wrong turn or was it just unfamiliar, a world you never knew existed? As if becoming the little girl of a man and a woman you were supposed to call Mommy and Daddy wasn't unusual enough.

But you kept being pushed further, deeper onto the dark side of life, experiencing things you'd always considered somewhat forbidden and depraved and taboo and uncalled for. From kissing a woman to having her finger you in the shower, to a man rubbing his cock between your labia and giving him a handjob after, to visiting a sex shop and having a vibe in your cunt, you ended up with a girl crouching under the table eating you out as if she'd been starved her whole life.

It was more than bizarre! But there was one thing that connected all those acts of supposed debauchery: whatever happened, you had felt lighter, it had been easier to breathe, your mind had been silenced while pleasure had flooded your senses. They might have spiked your anxiety, but they also pushed it aside again, distracting you. Making you feel better, at least in the moment. And wasn't that what mattered? What Mommy and Daddy had set out to do? Help you get better?

They might have unconventional methods that your innocent little brain had trouble comprehending, but somehow it worked, didn't it? And once you were past that awkward threshold of shame and humiliation, it felt... good. And the lines blurred, and it didn't matter whose tongue was lapping up your wetness, whose eyes raked your flushed face, where you were and how you ended up here.

All you felt was warmth and bliss, spreading over your exposed skin, as your eyes rolled back and you slipped down on your chair, pressing harder against the face between your legs, your hands tight around the edge of the table. A moan slipped from your trembling lips, your whole body aflame. Kitty licked firmer, faster, suckling on your lower lips before she moved up and lapped at your clit, nudging it out of hiding until it was throbbing and pulsing, and you felt as if you could explode from within.

And then her finger poked at the toy inside you, the motion causing it to slip from your ass, your tense muscles clenching and unclenching in rhythm to your rapidly beating heart. The vibrations grew more intense as she pressed it deeper into your fluttering cunt, her finger guiding it against that spot that made you see stars dancing at the edge of your vision. Like Mommy, she held the vibe there until you shuddered and flinched and came with a drawn-out sigh, rocking against Kitty's face as she continued sucking on your clit.

You felt your hips stuttering, more wetness seeping out of you that she eagerly licked up, moaning into your core as she did so. You succumbed to the pleasure, a boneless thing on your chair, barely able to stay upright. Her hands found your waist, pushing you back a little, holding you up. Her face remained between your legs, licking and sucking and lapping and nibbling, her labored breaths hot against your sensitive skin.

“That's enough, Kitty,” sounded Mommy's voice in your ears, through the fog in your head, and you lazily opened your eyes, licking your lips, feeling warm and cozy under the girl's ministrations. Kitty gave you one last stroke of her tongue before she leaned back, looking up at you with a shy smile, her lips glistening in your juices. You smiled back even more timid, mouthing a quiet “Thank you” that made her smile grew wider. She nodded at you and put her mask back onto her head, slowly crawling out from under the table.

But she remained with her raised backside to Mommy, bowing down until her forehead rested on her folded arms, and you noticed the long black dildo poking out of her ass, halfway disappearing inside. Still hazy from your orgasm and the overall experience, you watched a little confused as Mommy grabbed the dildo and pulled it out, leaving the girl's hole gaping for a moment before she clenched it shut again.

“Watch, mi amor, look what a body is capable of, what your body will be capable of soon enough,” she told you, and you blinked your eyes into focus when she pressed the tip of the dildo back against Kitty's sphincter before her muscles gave way and swallowed up the long toy.

She pushed and pushed further, and it sank deeper and deeper, the whole thing, vanishing inside the girl's small body. How is this even possible, you wondered, vehemently ignoring the implication of having to endure this yourself one day, but watching Kitty, she seemed rather relaxed, a little tilt to her hips, a slight arch to her back, goosebumps rippling over her skin, but otherwise she showed no reaction to having an entire dildo (that must have been at least ten inches long, maybe longer?) pressed into her ass.

Mommy gave the last inch a little nudge with her finger, and you watched in growing horror how the girl's hole clenched shut after the last of the thick dildo vanished inside her. Mommy rubbed her hand over Kitty's rear, before pulling her up and into a standing position. The girl stumbled a little on her high heels but quickly regained her composure, standing straight, chest out, and you could see a little dent in her otherwise flat stomach, a bulge, and it must be the dildo trying to find space inside her.

Your cunt clenched in a mixture of dread and arousal. Mommy pulled the girl onto her lap, rubbing her belly. “See? Isn't it marvelous?” she whispered, looking past Kitty at you. “One day, you'll feel this too, cariño. How does it feel, Kitty?” she asked the girl, who blushed deeply, shifting on Mommy's leg.

“Full but so good, Mistress,” she replied, her voice a hoarse whisper. “Thank you for stuffing me so full.”

Mommy laughed. “Anytime, my dear pet. Do you want to keep it in for the rest of your shift?”

You saw the tiniest of hesitations on Kitty's half-hidden face, a little tension in her shoulders, but then she smiled bravely. “If you allow it, Mistress.”

“I will,” Mommy said, rubbing the girl's arm before she nudged her to stand again. “Bunbun!” she then called, and the bunny girl came by so fast you suspected she had been waiting right behind the partition screen.

“Yes, Mistress?”

“Kitty's tail?” Mommy asked, holding out her hand.

The cat girl stood quite stiff beside her, and you watched her breathing a little rougher, her stomach fluttering, that bulge looking more and more uncomfortable. You couldn't imagine it to feel good to be filled like that. Up the ass no less. Where did that thing even go, up her guts? You didn't want to think too much about it, but you still flinched when Kitty gave a quiet wince as Mommy pushed her forward to bend over, folding her in half while pressing the plug part of her cat tail against her tight hole.

A muffled gasp escaped the girl when the older woman pressed the big plug into her, nudging the dildo a few inches further. You cringed in sympathy. Once the plug sat snug between her ass cheeks, the long black tail swinging slightly between her legs, Mommy gave her a soft slap, making her stumble a little.

“Good pet, go and get your reward,” she told her, and while you thought she'd be allowed to finally leave and do whatever, Kitty went down on her knees again and crawled back under the table.

You let out a surprised shriek when she returned to the place between your legs, her mouth back at your cunt, but instead of licking you once more, you felt her tugging at the vibrator, and you shifted slightly, lifting your hips when she pulled the thing out of you, the buzzing louder now that it was exposed to the air again. You watched her with a frown when she closed her lips around the egg-shaped object (glistening in your juices), before her hand moved up to click the button at the end to turn it off.

Then she scooted back and stood up, the pink toy firmly between her teeth, its thick tail hanging out of her mouth like the tail of a mouse she had just caught. It was a fitting image, but it was still weird to you. As you slumped down in your chair, pressing your thighs together, you watched her bowing to Mommy, who nodded at her and waved her away, and you looked after the poor girl, how her butt plug tail swooshed left and right, how the long dildo deep in her ass made her walk a little stiffly.

Swallowing, you looked back at the woman across from you, your heart beating faster. “Drink your water, baby,” she told you, and you reached for the water glass you had ignored until now, gulping it down eagerly. She watched you as she finished her coffee. “How do you feel?” she then asked.

You put the empty glass down, licking your lips. “A little awkward,” you confessed.

“Why?”

“Well, I... hmm,” you hummed, trying to find the words. “I've never been to a... a place like this... where everybody's so... open... about anything... s-sexual...” you stammered out in the end.

Mommy chuckled softly. “Welcome to my world,” she mused. “But you don't have to feel awkward about it. All these girls are here on their own free will, they want to wear their masks and collars and tails, they want to eat their customers' cunts, and trust me, they love having things up their bums.”

You pursed your lips, looking away for a moment.

“I'm sorry I sprang this on you without asking first,” she then said, leaning onto the table, closer to you. “But if I would have asked you, you'd have said no, right? Because you didn't know any better. Listen, mi amor, I'm not doing this to humiliate you, I want you to feel better about yourself, among other things. This is to silence your bothersome mind, to push those doubts away, to focus on something more primal. Didn't it feel nice when Kitty licked your little pussy? Didn't she do a good job?”

You inhaled sharply, averting your eyes, a new wave of heat crashing into your face. “Well, yes... but...”

Mommy clicked her tongue. “I know it's all still strange to you, I get it. But one day you'll see the benefits of letting go, of letting it happen, of being free...” She sighed deeply, leaning back. “I want you to be free, baby girl, and I want you to know that pleasure is all around you, and it's not just Daddy and me who can give it to you.”

She stood up then, extending her hand towards you. You grabbed it and stood as well, realizing then that Kitty still had your panties stuffed in her bra. You'd probably never see them again. At least the vibrator was gone too, so it was only your own wetness seeping down your legs that felt a little uncomfortable. Rubbing your thighs together, you walked a few steps until Mommy pulled you against her side.

“Let's go home now, hm, cariño? Maybe I can show you how to use your new toys before dinner,” she mused with a laugh, leading you out of the cafe, past the half-naked girls carrying trays or crouching under tables, entertaining the other guests. Only women, sitting in the shadows, as you noticed just now. What a strange establishment. And it was Mommy's?

But somehow you knew that this might not have been the weirdest thing you'd learn about your new caregivers.

Chapter 8 🔷️ Chapter 9 🔷️ Chapter 10

End notes: And now we may have the connection to Forgetful: is Mommy secretly Mistress? Maybe? Maybe not? Maybe she's just another dominant woman inspired by her? That's up to you, I kept it vague on purpose.

Thank you for reading! New chapter every Saturday!

Up next: While you play around with cats and bunnies, Daddy is impatiently waiting for your return...

MASTERLIST 🔷️ AO3 🔷️ ORIGINAL WORKS

[thr0wnawayy]

Useless Heroes and Hori's spinelessness with setup.

Salutations! I remembered my password.

(Jk, I've been busy)

It's no secret that Japan's heroes in MHA are extremely incompetent, I've pointed out their general disregard towards human life and surrounding infrastructure.

However what some of you might not know is that a majority of heroes in MHA are completely and utterly useless.

And I'm not just talking from a Doylist perspective either, Heroes in MHA are more of an obstacle than the villains they fight.

Take this panel for example:

Originally I was going to crop this to only include (ugh) Birdman, however on a second read I realized how asinine every single hero (not counting All Might) is.

First off the "clean up". I shouldn't need to explain what's wrong with this. The crowd posing a security risk, the minimal security. The fucking plastic bags!?

I mean really, what the hell can Backdraft achieve here, or Kanami or Mount Lady. The list goes on.

(That also ignores how these 4 imbeciles are getting paid for what a clean up crew or police force could do easily. Not to mention this whole incident veing their fault)

Anywho... We then see Death Arms and another "hero" yelling at Midoriya, who was also a victim of the Sludge Villain and actually bought All Might time. Whereas Bakugo failed like a panicked animal and worsened the situation.

It is here we see the first plot point: Heroes are hypocritical and biased towards those with flashy quirks.

They automatically downplay Midoriya while also neglecting to get him checked on by a paramedic.

Even Bakugo doesn't benefit as these so called Heroes swarm him like a vulture. Just so they can use him to boost their own popularity.

(and if I'm honestly speaking, if Birdman were somehow a high ranker. Bakugo would have fallen for it hook, line and sinker)

This subtly introduces a second idea: that Heroes are not as pure as they seem. Perhaps they can even be corrupt.

These two ideas, plotpoints, call them what you will. Do a good job at showing us the cracks in the mirage. Cracks that seemed to be widening come the Sports Festival.

So what happend?

I'm sure we're all familiar with the utter disappointment/disaster that was MHA's epilogue.

Regardless if you believe the initial final chapter to be canonical or the more recent 'improvement'. We can all agree that it bombed in regards to doing the above any justice.

The simple answer is that Hori (in my opinion) is a spineless hack, who can draw really good but for the love of god. Keep him out of the Writers room.

Hori seems to whine about how dissatisfied he is with MHA's direction towards darker themes or even complaining about characters he wrote into the story himself (see Tetsutesu x2.)

Hori lacks any guts when it comes to his own writing, preferring to laze-about in what's comfortable. The problem is he didn't write a comfortable story.

Corruption, Eugenics, Peer Abuse, Negligence and Human Trafficking. These are all things that MHA brings up but Hori refuses to touch on. Despite having wrote them into the world (and plot) himself.

Someone once commented under a post of mine that my W.I.P worked as a story because the events fit, rather than simply existing for shock value.

Now I cannot confirm whether or not the above were added to drive up stakes. However with how MHA ended up, I wouldn't be surprised if it was like the Big Three all over again. Hori adding something, nor knowing what to do with it and then desperately trying to smother it while introducing the "next big thing".

Ultimately, I find it humorous that someone so inspired by comic books and Star wars, is such a coward when it comes to pushing boundaries. Instead choosing to fall in line with what's trending, what the polls say, chasing after something that could never be obtained in the first place.

But hey look at the bright side, at least we have fan-works.

[strongheartneteyam]

I wet you like water but she stained you like blood.

Pairing: widowed!dilf!jake sully x younger!female!human!reader

CW: slight sexual language, can be triggering to some, heartbreak, age gap kink, hurt/no comfort, age gap relationship problems, angst, reader reminiscing (pls tell me if I missed anything) 

So, yeah... I never know when I'm gonna come back with another writing. My hiatus n working periods are all a bit unpredictable lol sorry. Anyways... I literally spent the whole night awake n I was struck by a sudden lightning of creativity early in the morning and I edited this chapter n wrote a bit more, but I still haven't slept at all, so, I apologize if some parts of this make no sense at all. I'll fix it when I can. Hope you guys like it <3 ily guys a whole lot :)) obs: this chapter is a shorter one.

Slightly proofread.

Chapter 4 𓆩♡𓆪

They say all's well that ends well

But I'm in a new hell every time you double-cross my mind

You said if we had been closer in age maybe it would've been fine

And that made me want to die

The idea you had of me, who was she?

A never-needy, ever-lovely jewel whose shine reflects on you

All Too Well - 10 minutes Version (Taylor Swift)

𓆩♡𓆪

It had been 1 year since the last time you saw Jacob Sully. Or Jakey, like you used to call him. The wound never healed. It still throbbed and bled every time you remembered the words he told you that dreadful day. "I think we should stop seeing each other." It felt like you would never get over him. How can one get over such an overpowering, raw feeling? He marked you forever, like a bruise that seemed to never disappear from your skin.

The flashback came like thunder in a storm, haunting your thoughts with a loud pain that echoed through your mind. What you told Jake that night.

“The truth is I love you. The truth is I can't take this anymore. I'm giving you my everything but you don't seem to be doing the same. You're still guarded.” There was a tense period of silence “Jake… I love you. But I don't think you feel the same.”

Maybe you shouldn't have said anything. Maybe if you had kept your mouth shut, he would still be with you.

Ugh!! Stop that, now, (y/n)! Some self love, please? You're better than this. You deserve better.

You tried to convince yourself of that, at least.

The pain was unbearable at times and almost easy to conceal at other times. It depended on how distracted with work or your studies you were. These days you ran to any distraction that could ease the perpetual angst that squeezed your heart inside its hands all the fucking time. It had been like that ever since Jake left you. What were you expecting anyway? You should have known you were never truly loved by Jake. The love of his life was Neytiri and it would always be, alive and walking through Pandora or dead and with Eywa.

It felt beyond weird to have to hear people talking about Jake and have to pretend he was a stranger to you, someone you barely knew, when he had actually left a mark so strong on you, a memory ingrained in your brain, a feeling, a pain buried inside your heart that made you want to scream and hit your head against a wall. That's how much it hurt.

You would never have his body against yours again, warming you up when it was cold, after you spent the whole day in that damn lab, studying Pandoran plants but all you could really concentrate on was how much you missed his reassuring, protective presence. He made you feel safe for the first time in your life. But now he is gone. Just like every single good thing you ever had in your life. But you know what? Maybe your mother was right, maybe love wasn't really something that could ever last forever.

Did Jake ever really make a real effort to be with you? Thinking back, it was extremely easy for him to just come to you and fuck you anytime he felt sad and lonely. What if you had just been a naive, dumb girl all this time? Were you mourning a love that never actually existed? It was always so hard to talk to him about his feelings for you, he never actually let you in, to be honest. All the time you two spent together, you were never able to know if he ever saw you as a partner or just a fuck buddy. 

Oh, but the high… it was worth all the lows. The butterflies in your stomach every time you guys were almost caught fucking in the back of your work room by Norm. Eventually you guys had to tell him about your situationship because, oh well… he already knew what was going on, really. Norm is not a fool or a child. He could add 2 plus 2.

The adrenaline was worth all the tears. And, fuck… you would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

𓆩♡𓆪

Taglist:

@aonungsoneandonly

@coldbabyheroin

@fairyyrosee

@myh3artttt

@explosiongamora

@ufiy

@yeosxxx

@happyyappysworld

@avatar4eva

@henhouse-horrors

@jakesullyfatjuicypeen

@fujimoribaby

@layla2-49

@zoetrope1997

@yeosxxx

@luvv4j4ybe11

@bakugouswaif

@slytherdor01

[smarthamartha]

I read acotar and wrote an 84 page review JUST to prove I hate it

So ACOTAR is insanely popular and honestly... I. Do. Not. Get. It. My friend S (29, f) gave me a brief synopsis after she wrote her Master thesis on series YEARS ago (She studied literature and I still hope she'll post her work online one day) and I have been using that to form an "opinion" on the ACOTAR series.

My boyfriend told me I shouldn't use her opinion as my own, even though S and I like most of the same stuff. But yeah, I mean... fair. So, I decided to read it so I could form an opinion myself.

I used an audiobook on YouTube because I didn't want to spend any money, but also because I wanted to listen to it while doing chores and by using an audiobook my boyfriend would be slightly forced to listen along to it. I suffer, you suffer with me, boy!

I really didn't know much about the book, to be fair. I was aware that the main character is called Feyre, that the relationships in this book are questionable, that it's about fairies and that later books are spicy (this one should be fine), that Maas has a masters degree in creative writing and that there is a "riddle" that is really easy to solve.

Just to prove a point, I wrote a chapter by chapter review. I am a thorough queen. It's 84 pages long in my notes app. I couldn't post all of them as screenshots, so my general review of the book are photos, the chapter by chapter thoughts, comments and concerns can be read below.

Spoiler alert: I hated it (and so did my boyfriend)

Chapter 1

- "I strung my bow" HO IS U KATNISS?

- Girliepop, less thinking in fancy words and more shooting

- Drink every time "wolf" or "fairy" is mentioned

- Girl has (except for an internal monologue the length of a movie) no physical reaction to seeing a monsterous wolf

- Tiny girl skins giant wolf NO PROBLEM

- Ok was fine

Chapter 2

- Mean/evil/ungrateful (step)sisters trope?

- Feyre is obviously the youngest daughter

- Maas is trying to make Feyre likeable by making her sisters absolute asses

(it's not working)

- "We're SO poor"

- "if it weren't for ME" 🙄

- Feyre has a superiority complex and is projecting this onto her sisters

- No money for tea so Feyre decides to drink yucky warm water... How about ypu either drink cold water or try and find some herbs or flowers or something 😅

- There would be no food or money if Feyre didn't hunt. HO IS U KATNISS?

- The "gentlemanly" fingers of her father

- You're poor WE GET IT

Chapter 3

- The concersation with the acolyte reminds me of Christians pushing their beliefs on others even though they said they were not interested. Even more so when they keep insisting they just "have to come over once just to see"

- Feyre taking about the skin of her sisters being shreddable... girl that's psycho 😂

- poison from at least 4+ monts ago may eventually kill or cripple (??) the mercenary?

- first mention of (loveless and quiet and frankly quite boring) sex

- Feyre asks herself if she's still going to be able to do the shmexy timz when Isaac is married 😂 GIRL WHAT

- Isaac took a contraseptive brew... progressive i guess?

Chapter 4

- Tiny girl plans to fight big beast with a table knife or a (rusty) nail

- And why do we think the fae are allergic to steel?

- treaty says: "a life for a life" which humans apparently forgot... (has no-one ever double checked? Cuz this sounds like gaslighting to me)

- What is the thing with Maas and ribbons?

- Again, Feyre is surprisingly calm and ready to attack

- a life for a life... Plz send Nesta you clearly despise her

- "ok FINE I'll come and join" 🙃

- "Bruises are easier to hide than poverty" ?????????

- *dramarisc* "Feyre don't go you are the only person who can care for us how will we ever surv- kbyeeeee"

Chapter 5

- The wolf is gonna be a guy isn't it?

- I'm pro locking Feyre up in a dungeon with only water and bread... but knowing this book it is probably going to be a sex dungeon so... pass.

- 50 shades of beast

- This chapter is just as long as the road that took them to the wall... surprisingly short.

Chapter 6

- HOLD UP is this a beauty and the beast retelling? Beast kidnaps girl?

- AGAIN WITH THE RIBBONS?

- you grew up with chants and songs about fairies so you know not to eat or drink anything... yet STILL nobody double checked the treaty? Idk seems like an oversight

- Yep, the monster IS a dude!

- "My captor or savoir, whatever he is" girl are you confused? Definitely not the second one 😂

- FINALLY a physical reaction! Breath!

- Girl still has some fight in her

- There is one with a fake eye, cool! Is he a fairy pirate?

- Wowowowow wait... she is being bathed, gets a haircut and is being plucked like a chicken? ✨️spa day✨️

- No but seriously though... Nobody seems to know what Feyre is doing there so maybe the dungeon isn't such a bad idea?

- Why is everyone like "She only needed a single arrow to murder him. So yeah let her run wild, no biggie!

- Another physical reaction! Trembling!

- "I tried not to cringe at the warning" yeah well I am trying not to cringe whilst reading this book

Chapter 7

- "Your skills with females" GOOD GRIEF

- "Because killing us is easier in pants" 😂

- Feyre is being asked about her hobbies. Her answer is "No I don't have them" because she can't explain her paintings to them. What kind of monstrosities those must be then. (Ok yeah I know about the paint quality but besides that...?)

- "The fae can't lie" yeah but somehow I DON'T BELIEVE IT

- "A shared look between the two males" men. Men. Is the word you are looking for.

- Feyre looks at herself in the mirror and basically describes a skeleton. She is worried Tamlin won't have any compliments for her because she's not perfect (like he is, according to her)... ok is this what people think young girls who have to hunt to keep their families fed and out of poverty are concerning about?

- "Fairy bastard" oof Feyre, shots fired

- Masks being fused with faces due to a curse is frickin' cool, I love it.

- The sickness ok yeah I kinda dig it

- Why is Feyre scared the blight will cross the wall? There is no magic there? It won't do anything to her family... right?

Chapter 8

- Distrust from both sides

- Tiny girl wants to attack 2 "males" who can turn into giant beasts with a table knife (part 2)

- Was busy doing other stuff but eyes were rolled

Chapter 9

- honestly I don't know why but these characters are SO BLAND

- I like Lucien and his creepy eye though

- "I admire your balls, Feyre" lol

- Ok but WHY have the past 6 chapters been about the exact same thing. "Should I stay or should I escape?" - "You can/may but we'd rather you didn't" and again and again and again...

- SO CAN SHE LEAVE OR NAH?

- I sense Feyre is gonna do something stupid

- Yep, love Lucien and his magical eye

Chapter 10

- Yo the bogge is pretty scary and I love it

- I get it, feyre. I, too, am curious about Luciens' eye

- Tamlin control yourself you emotionally unstable fairy bastard

Chapter 11

- Oopsie Daisy that's not pappie

- Feyre you're repeating yourself again! - We're on chapter 11 and you've talked about the treaty what feels like 27 times. Yes we know how you got there... I WAS THERE WHEN IT HAPPENED!

- Ok we have seen 3 monsters so far, but is anything going to happen with them or...?

- My GOD this book is frustrating

- Feyre talks about Tamlin as him being a "natural born predator" 🚩

- *sigh* YES FEYRE WE KNOW YOU HAVE TO STAY THERE

- Something interesting happens but it turns out to be a dream... what is this? The fight in beaking dawn?

Chapter 12

- RIP Bogge

- I sense sexual tension between Tamlin and Lucien tbh

- Feyre talking about her survival instincts is killing me 😂

- Yep, there is that superiority complex again

- Also there we have that "boohoo poor me" complex again

- Yes Tamlin is a vicious beast who can kill anything in his way, we know

- So ehm... guess what? This chapter is literally more of the same stuff we already know... (again, what a surprise)

Chapter 13

- A WEEK!? IT HAS ONLY BEEN A WEEK?

- Feyre basically can't read nor write... taking note

- Ok she is learning, good for you

- The mural sounds cool

- My friend sent me a picture of the map AND IT'S THE BLOODY UNITED KINGDOM?

- I ADORE the different courts, though

- Feyre has some big feelings about a children's book

- "I was still a child, unfinished and raw" ick

- Feyre doesn't mind writing with ink in Tamlins books, because he is rich so he should be able to replace a few. The nerve. Is that how we treat other people's posessions?

- Lucien... don't give her any ideas...

Chapter 14

- Prettyyyy

- I am listening to an audiobook and the reader keeps pronouncing "mural" the same way as "suriel" and it is annoying me.

- MY BOWELS TURNED WATERY 😂

- Tamlin is a high lord confirmed (I prefer Lucien tho)

- "I tucked away my fear" Where? In the pocket of your big girl pants?

- "Human woman" When the Suriel knows better than the Fae. (Well, Tamlin sees Feyre as his posession, but "human woman" is still better than "female")

Chapter 15

- I really am digging the monsters

- "my bones groaned" ???

- Tamlin to the rescue

- Soooo grounded or nah?

- Feyre constantly wants to alarm her family... but what are they gonna do? What difference does this info make to them? Feyre, you are CONSTANTLY moaning about the 'fact' that you are the only capable person in your whole darn family (or at least in your eyes), but now they should know about this thing that:

1) doesn't influence them

And

2) they are unable to do anything about....So why even bother?

Chapter 16

- People "produce like rabbits" and the fae are rarely able to produce "younglings"... yuck, really, use normal words and descriptions

- "I never looked lovely a day in my life" oh Feyre you are such a teenager

- Dun dun duuunnnnn the fae CAN lie (oh how i am not even slightly surprised)

- "ofcourse we can lie, how else do we get them to trust us?" ...... HUH? 😂

- Iron WON'T kill them, and irony probably won't either... cuz they are that oblivious to common sense *ba dun tsssss*

- Yet again Feyre just so happens to do the impossible as a human and everyone is bamboozled (except for me)

- Is he coming onto her? The girl who murdered his friend? I still find this SO WEIRD that this is her 'punishment' for involuntary manslaughter BUT OK

- Tamlin changing the minds of Feyres family is so friggin intrusive i hate it

- Again: all of this could have been avoided if someone double checked the treaty, no?

- *Sigh*

- Feyre wants to paint, ok girlie do your arts and crafts

- Heck yeah a gallery

Chapter 17

- OMG! Somethings new is happening!

- "She took my wings" gave me chills

- Yeah yeah she took your wings (Sarah J Maas is constantly repeating herself... both to fill her chapters without actually adding anything of value to the plot, as well as just repeating literal text. I hate it)

- Poor fairy

- Feyre be lying again, or is making promises she can't keep

- RIP Summer court fairy you will be missed

- Ok wow what, this was honestly a good chapter compared to the rest

- What a breath of fresh air

Chapter 18

- Liquid starlight sounds ABSOLUTELY MAGICAL i want it

- Lucien is... NOT GAY? 😭

- Human killing fae? Sure, come and live with us. Here, beautiful dresses and even servants, just for you! Fae crossing border from one court to another? Death! Death to you! Tamlin with his double standards

- Low key love Luciens backstory, still think it should have been a boyfriend tho

- "I took pride in myself that my fingers didn't tremble once" looool

- They are... going in the water

- Yep, clothes are already off

- Oh Feyre 🙄

- Idk what it is but the chapters seem to be getting slightly better, but maybe it's just because I have lowered my standards. Or have I weirdly been getting into it?

Chapter 19

- Feyre paints for weeks on end and nothing looks remotely decent

- "It was a mating present"????

- "He said, caressing my bones" wut?

- Sexual tension

- Crossing "releasing a breath i didnt know I was holding" off of my book cliché bingo

- He... purred 😵‍💫

- He flipped and landed on his feet... Tamlin is a cat confirmed

- The poem 😂😂😂

- It's giving Ken singing Wonderwall to Barbie

- "I dont like losing so i took it upon myself to become good at them" you are talking about writing limericks... being nearly immortal must be boring AF (I am not saying writing poems is boring, but honey you have all the time in the world and THIS is the best you can do???)

- His poetry is as good as her painting

- The "mating bond" makes marriage insignificant BIG YUCK

- Feyre THE FIRST THING your brain does is go to the question if there have ever been mating bonds with humans and Fae?

- Tamlins father was a Tyrant but because they were mated tamlins mother never said anything bad about him... how awful is it to realise your perfect person is a horrible person?

- Fate be like: ✨️here, an abusive relationship for you, for the rest of your long and very fucking miserable life✨️

- I thought this was like a "true love" thing but it seems like it is an unexplainable attraction like "imprinting" in Twilight? Which makes 0 fucking sense and is hella concerning imo...

- What if you're stuck with someone who has an alpha male type mentality like ew

- What if the person you are mated with is a pedophile?

- Do people think this mating thing is romantic? Because that is fucking INSANE and NOT in a cutesy positive romantic exciting sort of way

- I have so many questions

- Lucien what the hell 😭 You are so gay for Tamlin and you're jealous now but you don't even realise it it's so sad

- This evil lady better be the big bad because where the hell is this book going

Chapter 20

- Ominous requests to stay inside

- This girl never listens, does she? 😅

- "The most beautiful man i'd ever seen" oh come on 🙄

Chapter 21

- "The monsters have been let out of their cages tonight so I'm free to roam wherever I like" what the heck is going on?

- "I hated feeling like a disobedient child" THEN DON'T DO STUPID SHIT

- "Tam will allow great and terrible magic to enter his body and the magic will cease control over his mind and body and soul and turn him into a hunter. It will fill him with his sole purpose, to find a maiden." But nobody knows who the maiden will be. Sooooo basically... rape?

- A path to a cave with fairy females ready to be his mate, but HOW do you know it is going to be one of them? Also- this is not te same 'mate' as the strong love bond? This one isnt permanent??

- He does this EVERY YEAR? They ALL do?

- "Once he made his choice we're free to mingle" Jezus fucking christ it's an orgy

- Oh shit they do this MULTIPLE times a year then?

- "She had come to the hill on her own free will" is the bare fucking minimum of consent, Sarah

- Called it. He wants Feyre. Ofcourse.

- "He reeked of magic"

- HE BIT HER?! WTF

- The person reading the audioboek I am listening to has a cold and she sounds awful, which makes this chapter a little bit better (because funny), yet soooo much worse 😂

- Nopenopenopenopenope 🚩

- Is it because it is problematic or because I am probably too asexual for this (possibly both)

- He is LITERALLY a predator in this moment

- Feyre KNOWS he is not himself, but she is not scared nor does she say no, but she didn't give consent either

- Shit's gonna be awkward at breakfast

- Spicy ❌️

- Problematic ✔️

Chapter 22

- "A night of celebrating" well that's one way to put it...

- We happened to meet in the hallway so I just bit her

- Still not over the ritualistic rape

- Feyre: "Everyone snoops in this house"... something about a pot and a kettle, girlie

- Ok Feyres paintings are... fine i guess

- "You were there when they wrecked your father's legs" - "well SOMEONE had to tell them to stop" girl, please 😅

- Oh the yearning...

- Tamlin blames Feyre for not adhering to the treaty... just wait until she can read

- He's so broody

- Honestly Tamlin should just get like a hobby, he seems in dire need of stress relief. I suggest crochet or collecting stamps or something... or press flowers from the garden and make collages.

- Feyre is jealous of Tamlins many "female" lovers, with fancy titles (and oh no they must all be so beautiful).

Girl why are you:

1) surprised

2) mad/jealous/sad

3) forgetting he literally kidnapped you

4) thinking you're the first "interesting" person ever crossing his path?

Chapter 23

- What the hell is happening

- Is he gonna turn her into a fairy? Feyre the fairy? Can he do that?

- Oof a kiss, nonono says Feyre. But my door last night, it wasn't locked 😂

- Kissy kissy nonetheless

- Feyre: who saw "the most handsome man ever" yesterday, got bitten by her captor and clearly doesn't know how to feel about it all yet: "Oohhh he's so ☁️dreamy☁️"

Chapter 24

- Feyre realizing Tamlin used magic so she wouldn't see all the fairies in the court is both hilarious and sick af at the same time. You mean baby girl couldn't see other people but they could see her?

- Heck yeah chopped off head

- Night court aka dark aka evil?

- That other dude was from night court, right? You know, the most beautiful man ever?

- "This is their idea of a prank" ????

- "Omg no no you really shouldn't feel bad that you kidnapped me, you are not your family. I luckily never felt like a prisoner even though I am never allowed to go home, if I take 1 step outside a thousand different monsters will come at me, I deliberately get little information so that I remain helpless and unaware, my family no longer remembers me, my environment was enchanted so that I could not see others, I have wondered endlessly whether I will have to stay here for the rest of my life, you bit me and are trying to seduce me halfway... but you don't have to worry about all that because you are beautiful and I was allowed to finger paint so all is forgiven xoxo"

Chapter 25

- I love stories loosely influenced by the pagan calendar or phases of the seasons and the moon and the sun... connecting to nature instead of religion

- Yes to summer solstice (which ofcourse is not specifically pagan but the fae are clearly supposed to be "magical" so a writer with a religious background like Maas will obviously draw her inspiration from stuff this because ooohhh sounds a bit like witchcraft. I'm ok with it)

- Just wondering if she is gonna turn this sexual as well...

- "I am going to paint you" HAHAHA HELP

- 💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼

- Pretty

- Love de wisps, they remind me of Brave

- Oh boi they smoochin'

- Say it with me kids:

🚩 "If he kidnaps you, but is nice to you, it's still a red flag."

🚩 "If he kidnaps you, but gives you pretty clothes, it's still a red flag."

🚩 "If he kidnaps you, but lets you paint, it's still a red flag."

🚩 "If he kidnaps you, but lets you do fun stuff, it's still a red flag."

🚩 "If he kidnaps you and bites your neck and isn't quite himself from time to time, it's quite definitely a red flag."

🚩 "If he kidnaps you, but you fall in love with him, it's called Stockholm Syndrome... and yes girliepop, that's ALSO a big red flag."

Chapter 26

- Luce and Tam bicker like a married couple

- Yeah so... is anything actually going to happen with those monsters?

- Blight kills 24 people. RIP in peace

- The blight is everything except for the night court... so it OBVIOUSLY originates there, right?

- Footsteps oop

- Ayo another one of Feyres "saviors"

- Himbo

- Mr steal your girl probably

- Feyre getting all hot and bothered

- Amaranthas whore 😂

- "You DARE to put a glamor on me!?"

- Still not over the fact that Lucien isn't gay

- So many feral men

- So many emotional men

- WHAT IS SO SPECIAL ABOUT FEYRE?

I. DO. NOT. GET. IT. Just get rid of her because nobody cares...

- Why keep protecting her? This story makes NO SENSE (they probably need her for something but at least mention it n we're 26 chapters in, dangit)

- Bad boy Rhysant be like "kneel lol"

- So who is this Amarantha? Big boss lady who somehow owns a high fae from the night court? Is she badass? Like *actually* badass?

- Poof he gone

Chapter 27

- FEYRE CAN GO HOME! Is this the end of the book that doesn't go anywhere? No? Okay...

- "What about the treaty" so we're still pretending this thing exists? Ok...

- Feyre: *gets what she wants, to finally go home*

- Also Feyre: "I don't wanna" 😭

- No worries you'll be back this series has more books sadly

- They are both 'breathing' each other's names

- Seriously regretting using an audiobook for this

- Feyre and Tamlin getting steamy. Knowing her, she now has "what she wants" (Tamlin) - so now she'll probably be wanting something else... my guess is "the most beautiful man she has ever seen"

- Goodbye sex

- Feyre matching his freak scratching 'n shit

- Took a nap, did it again but this time boring

- Oh nooo she really has to gooo (sarcasm)

- Oop he said the L word AWKWARD

Chapter 28

- I want to see Feyre in this wack ass outfit

- "My paintings... they're yours" ROFL

- Girlie saw literal monsters, killed a giant wolf man, realised people could see her when she thought she was alone... but now she is in a carriage on her way home and NOW she's terrified?

- There is the L word again

- Feyre can't say it back (drama)

- A "Chateau"? Ho is u French?

- YAY mean sisters

- Plot twist they all rich now

- Sis didn't marry, feel like this is relevant

- Guess what, there is Feyres superiority complex again. Ofcourse you made a big mistake in leaving the spring court, what are they gonna do without you? (Sarcasm)

Chapter 29

- TLDR; Elain is actually an ok person, Nesta is eepy creepy odd, they don't (?) really like being rich ??? and Nesta wanted to visit Feyre but had to turn back (also Feyre I am so over being in your head...)

Chapter 30

- Feyre meets Isaac again (this better be something for the plot and not more filler)

- "He looked so human" girliepop imma say it one more time, you're annoying, stop it.

- "When I left he was a boy and now he blossomed into a man" Sarah please 🙄

- All these riches are unnatural, magical, fake... how are you ok with this and not worried everything will go to shit when the blight grows stronger?

- Oop Nesta

- Daddy issues

Chapter 31

- Something with consequences to your actions, Feyre... a girl is probably dead because of you

- Ok this setup is actually good, would you look at that

- There is that superiority/savior complex again Feyre, have you learned nothing?

- Soooo... what are you gonna do when you're there?

- Yet again they be like "kbye"

- GIRL stop whining about Tamtam, he is a walking and talking red freaking flag 🚩

- "Even if i had to tie him down to listen" 😂

- Hello? Where y'all at?

Chapter 32

- "I gave myself one minute" ooh gurl have you been to therapy? Cuz that's what you learn in therapy 🤩 Is Feyre secretly a self-critical person who likes to work on herself? Hahahaha nah, this girl is so full of herself but "hides" it behind a few minor "insecurities" aka "AM I BEAUTIFUL ENOUGH FOR A FAIRY?"

- Alis ayyyy

- So Amarantha IS the big bad (finally, after 32 chapters this story is finally going somewhere, I am delighted)

- "You want the truth, girl" ALIS I LOVE YOU, YOU SASSY QUEEN 😂

- She took Tampon to some underground cave court. Ok. I guess i know where Feyre is going

- Please let her be a giant bat or something

Ok, this is confusing so let me list it for my brain:

- Amarantha came 100 years ago

- Fought next to the king for 50 years

- She a bad beesh and not the fun kind

- Amarantha loves her sister

- Sister is also a bad beesh but falls in love with a human

- human man is, as to no-ones surprise, an actual asshat

- BETRAYAL

- A ball... in her honor? Didn't we JUST learn she was a very cruel person?

- Amarantha be like "curse you all"

- "Stole their powers from where they originated inside their bodies" and "Plucked like an apple" ??? Huh

- Amarantha been holding a grudge for wayyy to freaking long

- SHE is the blight

- Oh OFCOURSE Feyre was the solution 😂

- "Had you not have been so blind for your own heart" BRUH KIDNAPPED HER what are you on about

- Tampon be like: slavery bad

- Amazon be like: get in my bed

- Tiny: ew no lol

- Amygdala: aww 😭 you made me big mad

- Also: I lust for you (ick)

- "Bile rose in my throat" girl me too

- Guy just doesnt like girl so she gives him a reason to...

- Another ball... who goes to these? Who likes this fuck ass mad woman?

- Oh Tammy, that was a shitty move

- *hates people herself* Y'know who imma let you help break the curse? A human! Suuuure, give him a reason to connect with humankind again

- What a... ridiculously complicated case

- A human can save you BUT it has to be a girl BUT she has to hate fairies (y'know, Feyre... the kid with the fairy name? Sure) BUT she would also want/be able to kill a fairy BUT not just any one, one of your court BUT it actually has to be without knowing what she's doing and without provoking BUT she has to be courted afterwards BUT really it just has to resemble my sister's suffering ok...

- Oddly specific, I friggin' hate it.

- THE TREATY WAS A LIE, OBVIOUSLY

- poor Tam 😭😂

- She had to say I love you?? 😂 oof girl

- I am laughing my ass off this is so dumb. Like, I KNOW this is a fairytale retelling but geez Louise make it a little interesting het is so lame

- Am I supposed to feel bad for Tam?

- I'm convinced that Maas wrote Feyre's story first and then thought "Ok shit that's oddly specific I just have to write the curse exactly as it happened to Feyre because otherwise it doesn't make sense lol" like, i'm 100% sure that woman based Amaranthas story on Feyre and not the other way around, and it shows...

- Amarantha has so much potential to be an interesting character but she's so flat and cartoony it's actually so very disappointing

- Tamlin wasn't allowed to say anything to Feyre? Idk if that makes it better tbh

- Some of my friends who have read the book praise Maas' world building. How? Huh? What? Is THIS Amaranthas incentive? Is she mad because of her sister? Or because Tandem won't do the devil's tango with her? Is creativity in the room with us? It's giving "Imma put you all to sleep because I wasn't allowed to come to the baptism", also her SISTER is the one who got betrayed, not her? Kill all people bc my sister endured something traumatic and my himbo wouldn't sleep with me? Bitch please get a grip. (Talking to Sarah just fyi)

- I am ACTUALLY real fucking mad, I had *some* expecting for this book, but it is actually just shit.

- I have so many questions about this

- They couldn't say anything so they had to lie. Where does the "fairies can't lie" thing come from then?

- "Yeah go ahead and cross the border and hope someone kills you lol" (stupid)

- Also, how many fairies have been killed? By hunters and older women? I thought they were very hard to kill? Feyre I got some sad news for you that's gonna break your egocentric little heart

- They didn't just escape when they realised it was a farmer who was gonna kill them? 😂 aren't they like giant beasts? Don't you need ash wood or immense brute strength or something? Yikes.

- The children of the blessed came over the wall BUT not as brides BUT they were all killed by... blah blah and blah stop yes but-ing your story makes no fucking sense.

- Review ❌️

- Rant ✔️

- "All you had to do is say that you loved him you stupid stupid girl" .2 seconds ago you said she couldn't have known, why so angry suddenly?

- 3 DAYS 😂 WHY DID YOU LET HER GO THEN

- Does he *actually* love her or no because if no, double ew

- Yeahyeah lethal and vicious and oehlala tralala 🙄

- What is this with locked up powers, are we ever gonna see them again?

- Dumb, dumb, stupid, dumb

- I am over it tbh, can I rage quit this book?

- She keeps powers locked up? But she has her own dark powers also?

- Zense? It makes zero.

- There is Feyre again, she's gonna save the world with the power of stubbornness and being really fucking annoyed

- "Your flesh is paperthin" you mean skin?

- Her wild brown hair like glistening mud 😂

- FEYRE 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️

- Feyre wholeheartedly doesn't believe in fate... nor cauldrons

Chapter 33

- Feyre on a mission

- Yeah girlie you do you boo kbye

- "I took several breaths" another one for the bingo

Chapter 34

- Again with the groaning bones

- Amarantha isn't a timeless beauty, ofcourse... cuz she's evil

- "To paint her, would have driven me to madness" OK FEYRE

- "Obviously, Amarantha purred" oh please

- Feyre still trying to break the oddly specific curse is sending me 😂

- Ok Almond is already getting on my nerves, she is not intriguing whatsoever, with her white, perfect teeth 🙄

- Eye ring? It's Luciens eye, isnt it?

- It's giving that giant eyeball ring from the Sims every townie is wearing

- "I have never seen her before"

- "Even now he is trying to protect me" *sigh* leave him be.

- "She fingered the bone on her necklace" nope, not a good enough reason to use the word "fingered"

- Feyre has watery bowels again

- A riddle and his curse will be broken

- One task every full moon. Ew. Is this some lycanthrope kink thing?

- Yes! Throw her in a cell!

- Ok, go for the riddle, the terms are flimsy so just agree and figure it out, you smartass

- Jk, Feyre keeps doing dumb shit so... eh

- still confused about their faith and that wack ass couldron

- Prediction: She won't figure it out until the very last minute

Chapter 35

- Oh sweet, sweet Feyre... they can never make me like you

- "How can you be so foolish?" Yeah well...

- "Well I'm here now" lol

- Ok sure someone else's eye not Luciens

- Maas is suddenly shifting the tone of this book and I am honestly wondering who this is for? It previously was a YA tbh

- "I tried not to look up at Claire's rotting body" honestly best line in this whole chapter

- "Humans all look alike to me" Que!?!

- "Tonight tonight, my plans I make, tomorrow tomorrow, the baby I take. The queen will never win the game, for Rumpelstiltskin I MEAN FEYRE is my name"

- For fucks sake, stop purring

- What is this conversation for again?

- *sigh*

- Riddle time

Ok, a little context: a friend who told me about ACOTAR, has told me about this riddle before I read the book. So yes, going into it I knew the answer of the riddle.

However, this is basically how our conversation went:

* The riddle goes like this: "There are those who seek me a lifetime but never we meet"

- Love. The answer is love.

* "And those I kiss but who trample me beneath ungrateful feet."

- Oh no wait...

* No, no, that's it, you got it!

- Really?

* Yep

- ... oh

*Want me to go on?

- Nah.

So ehm... yeah. Make of that what you will

- Feyres brain immediately going to diseases is hilarious to me

- Here we go from savior to boohoo help me I am so human and mortal and stupid and probably not very attractive and I probably won't find the solution because I have never known "love" in my entire life

- Back in the dungeon, lots of time to think

- Wondering why Feyre didn't ask for Amarantha to write it down, but then again her reading is shit sooooo

- Time for the full moon

Chapter 36

- Ok so... Feyre is literally *just* a toy

- "Hunt this"

- This world has sandworms like Dune or that giant worm from spongebob

- Finally some action

- "It was blind" aha

- This is actually a good chapter, well done!

- Big ass scary worm has a teeny tiny nose somewhere apparently cuz it can smell

- "She is building a trap" smort

- "She has just become invisible" nice

- "My knees and ankles groaned" girl maybe you should go see a doctor

- "Anyone could have done that" sure, Almond, sure.

- Back in your cell, you

- Soooo... why did we do this during a full moon? Was it a were-wyrm?

Chapter 37

- Broody handsome dude creepin'

- "I'll heal your arm for 2 weeks of you"

- What is it with all this "you owe me so I'll own you"-shit?

- Feyre establishes that evil hot guy does evil things

- "For Tamlin I would sell my soul" Feyre, stop saying dumb shit. I'm serious.

- Big fan of Feyre locked up in a dungeon (although wondering when she'll do something stupid again)

- Aaaaaand... there it is 🙃

- HE GAVE HER A TATTOO??? Dude did you just mark her like a cow or a pig?

- Oh noooooo... shocking jow much I do not care for Feyre, Tamlin, this shadow guy... tbh the only character like is Lucien.

- Oh Rhys... so dark and ✨️mysterious✨️ (barf)

- No. Just... No.

Chapter 38

- Cinderelli Cinderelli...

- Oh look it's him again 🙄

- "Each of us has a beast beneath our skin, roaring to get out. While your Tamlin prefers fur, I find wings and talons to be more entertaining"

- Look, I KNOW this is supposed to be some kind of "look how cool and magical we are" thing, but honestly... it's just giving beastiality

- I am now imagining Tamlin in a fursuit and Rhys flapping his arms with sheets of black plastic pretending to be a bat... help

- "His powerful male body" yes yes ok thanks for confirming he is, in fact, a man

- Showoff... why does it remind me of a kid in school acting mysterious yet interesting?

- "Admirable or stupid" the answer is the second one, Riverdance

- Feyre still can't figure out the riddle

- "Cheating are you?" Well if there are no specifics given it is indeed not cheating

- YES BUT she said we can't help you so we won't (says the dude who helped her heal) - Popular mean girl from high school says we can't and I'm cool and want to stay cool so listen up or I might not be cool anymore

- "Here, a gift. For having the balls to even ask" 😂

- "He purred as he walked out" ew

Chapter 39

- "I gobbled it down" Feyres inside beast is a turkey

- The tattoo blinked 😂

- First a free tattoo, now free bodypaint!

- Prisoner gets makeover and a very shmexy dress, makes perfect sense!

- Yeah Riddler, how DARE you objectify me (I mean I objectify you too but that's different)

- Also, consent? Yeah never heard of her

- This book is so incredibly cringe, dang

- What is this chapter??

- "I did such a foolish thing" yeah no shit

- "We made a bargain" ok how many times are they going to repeat this or explain it as if we weren't literally there?

- Feyre be like: "Rhys with the wings and the talons, lurking behind that beautiful, flawless surface" bla bla hubba hubba 🙄

- "That handkerchief he called a dress" lol

- Great, drug wine

- Lucien be like "HeY i WaS gOnNa CoMe YoU jUsT hAd To WaIt" 😾

- Oaths apparently mean nothing to these people...?

- "I barked"

- "Just a week every month, for the rest of my life"... girl, sleepovers at Rhys is low key the personification of you being on your period - inconvenient, painful and probably bloody

- Hilarious how this girl is being co-kidnapped/parented by two men...

- "There was a tall, handsome..." YES FEYRE JUST LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE HERE parently, keep it in your pants

- "The summer court fairy cringed" SAME

- Feyres watery bowels at it again

- RIP he dead

- The last part of this chapter wasn't that bad, it just establishes what we already knew about Amarantha. But ok sure, it's fine I guess.

- Every single hot dude is a walking and talking red flag. Tbh, Rhys is just as bad as Tamlin. Feeding her spiked wine and letting other people do stuff to her? Wtf?

Chapter 40

- What was the point of these trials again? Fun for Amarantha?

- Lucien is literally the only character i don't find insufferable

- Feyres "one is bad cuz it's solitary so it's Amarantha and two is tamlin and me and three is too many like three sisters" 😂 girl you're going cray cray

- Just pull a lever, Kronk

- I, too, would like a tattoo that would help me cheat on tests

- If you're pure evil... how are you suddenly 'honest' in a game? Just cheat? Make sure it's all rigged? Pull any lever - ur ded hehe (no but seriously why give Feyre a chance to win at all?)

- "He licked away a tear" 😵‍💫 BRO WTF

- "It was disgusting" well look at that, I am finally agreeing with Feyre. How far we've come.

Chapter 41

- "... and her pincers are not so kind"

Me: *snorts*

"The other creature snorted that pig noise"

Me: woah wtf 😂

- "I trusted Nesta" DO YOU NOW?

- The descriptions in this chapter are actually pretty good and I must say it's been a while since I enjoyed something in this book

Chapter 42

- "What I felt for him was wild and hard and burning" 🙄

- Biting again

- "Our bones danced" *sums up some random dances as if Feyre knows anything about dancing "no *broody* it was a death dance" lmao I can't

- Fairy sex obviously is wild animalistic sex

- SWEET JEZUS STOP PURRING

- "His eyes flickered" ✔️ bingo

- So many things groan in this book... bones, doors, fae...

- "Forcing himself into me, in the space where I still could taste Tamlin" WTF 🚩🚩

- (talking about Rhys and Amarantha) "How it would hurt to be enslaved by someone like that" oy Feyre, YOU ARE.

- Ohhh, you're groping and mouth fucking her JUST to make Tamling angry! Hahahaha ofcourse it's aaaalll good now

- Rhys, you disgust me

- "Feyre, for cauldrons' sake" 😂

- Also Rhys be like: "Oh but I am not touching you below so it's fine"

- "It is the only way to convince him I was on your side. Believe me, I would have loved nothing more than to enjoy you" maaaaaan get a grip

- "Beyond the obvious? And he gestured to his perfect face" oh he is so fucking full of himself I'm over it

- "My father killed Tamlins father, and his brothers" oh how I did see this coming

- "What a mess." This book? Yes.

Chapter 43

- "She pouted" Omg!! I know who Amarantha reminds me of! It's king George from Hamilton 😂 she is just as (not at all) scary and intimidating as him! Only difference is - King George is also a big baby, but he is still somewhat silly (like his dance) and that is the only thing that is likeable about him. Amarantha is just "fear me for I am an evil sex goddess/queen and my wrath will rain upon you" but all I feel is like "Ma'am you should try therapy and stop bullying others. You should learn to work on yourself, maybe then people will actually like you"

- Final test: murder

- One of these victims is gonna be someone she knows, right? Probably Lucien, Tamlin or one of her sisters

- Honestly at this point I do not care if Feyre dies. Nor do I care about her internal monologue and 'struggles' tbh.

- RIP fairy 1

- No way back now, Feyre.

- Ofcourse it's Tamlin

- Thankfully it's not Lucien

- *Feyre rambling*

- All this in the span of... a few seconds?

- *Feyre only now contemplating suicide*

- Put 1 and 2 together, girliepop...

- Tamlin is a vampire confirmed

- (definitely not) RIP Tamlin

Chapter 44

- Told ya

- "Feyre didn't tell me WHEN I had to release them" woah what a lame "twist" but then again seems on brand 🤦🏼‍♀️

- Amarantha you sore loser

- Back again with the "Yes but..."

- "Say that you don't love him" Amarantha spat SEE IT'S KING GEORGE 😂

- THIS is how she figures the riddle our? Oh please...

Chapter 45

- And... why did she die now?

- Don't worry she won't stay dead sadly

- Sorrows, sorrows

- Maas trying to redeem Tamlin

- I'm so happy it's almost over...

Chapter 46

- "I felt strong and fast" is giving "You're incredibly fast, and strong... I know what you are... vampire" 😂

- Feyre - the girl with the fairy name - evolved and will now probably be even more insufferable

- "What had they done" 😭 girl this is your wet dream and we all know it

- "with a predator stillness" yuck

- What in the victory fuckery...

- This is basically Bella acclimating to becoming a vampire

- So Feyre still has to go to Rhys, even after dying? I'm pretty sure dying helps getting you out of contracts

- "Home" oh please 🙄

- After all that and she's still swooning like a teenage girl over the guy who literally kidnapped her... ok

[nb-octopus-writes]

once you’re in the hive, the other bees assume you’re supposed to be there

[Masterpost]

Chapter 4: Second Morning

wordcount: 1.9K

~~~~

The next morning, Virgil wakes not to birdsong, but to the sound of his alarm.

Blech, mornings. Morning jobs are evil and should be abolished.

Virgil reaches for his phone, but it isn't on the nightstand where it's supposed to be. The nightstand isn't on the floor where it's supposed to be. Virgil reaches out further, searching, and overbalances.

He falls.

This is going to hurt.

Virgil lands, and the floor is a lot closer than it's supposed to be, and also a lot cleaner. The wind is still knocked out of him, but he didn’t land on anything but carpet. It's carpet that was recently vacuumed, even, judging by the lack of dusty smell.

Too many things are not how they are supposed to be. Virgil opens his eyes and looks around.

This isn't his bedroom.

The alarm is still going off. Virgil spots his phone on the floor near him, and he turns off the alarm.

This isn't his bedroom. Virgil yawns. He'd been sleeping on a couch, but it wasn't his couch, either.

Oh, yeah. He'd fallen asleep at Remus's brother's house again. Oops.

…

He has work.

He hadn't meant to still be here right now. He's supposed to be in his own bed, in his own tiny apartment, sleepily snoozing his alarm. Not here.

He'll have to figure out a different bus route. Does the bus even go by here? He's pulling up the bus schedule when his phone informs him that it has been way too long since he plugged it in, and fucking dies.

“Fuck,” Virgil whispers, with feeling, and then again, a little louder, “Fuck!”

He scrambles off the floor, trying to think. An adrenaline spike does wonders for chasing the sleep-fog out of his brain, but it doesn't usher in logic.

Deep breath. Okay. What does he need?

He needs to get to work on time.

Breathe.

What are his obstacles, and what can he do about them?

Problem: He's not home to catch the bus. Solution: Catch the bus from here. Problem: He doesn't know if the bus goes by here or which one or when or what connections he'd need to make. Solution: Look it up. Problem: His phone is dead. Solution: Plug it in. Problem: No charger. Solution: …

Solution: …

Solution: Ask for fucking help.

Virgil spins and leaves the room. They might not have a charger that'll fit his phone, and it would take too long to get it to a level where he can actually look anything up anyway, but they can at least tell him if there's a bus stop nearby. They might even be willing to look up connections for him.

Luckily for Virgil, his hosts are all in the dining room when he bursts in.

“Good morning,” Calico says, already looking concerned. “What's wrong?”

“Is there a bus?” Virgil asks.

“A what?”

“A bus,” Virgil repeats. “A bus, does a bus go by here? I have work, I'm going to be late, and I can't look up the bus schedule because my phone is dead!”

“Hey, hey, it's okay,” Calico says soothingly, and Virgil wants to scream because it is not okay, he's going to be late for work. He doesn't scream, because that would not be helpful and Calico is just trying to be nice, but he wants to. “Roman can drive you. Right, Roman?”

“Absolutely,” says Princey, whose name is apparently Roman, and gets up. “I'll get my keys.”

Calico portions out some omelette from the pan in the middle of the table, and gives it to Virgil. “Here, eat,” he insists. “You slept through dinner, you shouldn't miss breakfast too.”

Virgil scarfs it mechanically. If Princey is going to drive him, he probably has enough time to eat, but the lingering edges of panic tell him not to waste any time savoring the flavors.

“Do you have any things you need to gather before you go?” Nerdbot asks. Virgil shakes his head.

Well. “My pool noodles I guess,” he says. He probably shouldn't just leave those here for them to clean up. Nerdbot nods and leaves the table as well.

Roman comes back as Virgil finishes the plate of omelette. “Ready to go?” he asks.

“Yeah.”

Nerdbot hands Virgil the pool noodles, and Calico hands him a buttered bagel. “Eat it on the way,” he says. Princey leads Virgil out to the garage, and they get in his car.

It's red, and fancy-shaped, with a swoopy silhouette instead of what Virgil considers the car default.

Roman hands Virgil his phone once he's buckled, open to the map app, and starts to back out of the garage.

Virgil hesitates. “Can we stop at my place first?” he asks. “I could really use a change of clothes.” He'd really rather not go to work in a Halloween costume he's been wearing for over thirty-six hours.

“Sure,” Princey says. “Which way?”

Virgil puts in his address, and the phone gives him directions. “Left,” he says, the tight band of anxiety finally loosing from around his lungs. It's not entirely gone yet, and won't be until he clocks in, but he's doing better. Princey pulls out of the driveway, and they're off.

Soon, they're pulling up in front of Virgil’s apartment. He'd managed to eat the bagel and navigate at the same time, and they've arrived a bit before Virgil is usually out the door. He really might make it to work on time.

“I'll wait here while you run up and get changed,” Roman says, and Virgil nods. He shifts the pool noodles so he's holding them with the same arm as the phone, and uses his other hand to open the car door.

He dashes up the stairs, unlocks his door at the speed of fright, and dumps his armload on his bed. Virgil strips quickly, and grabs his apron and the first set of clean clothes he sees. He wishes there was time for a shower, but there really isn't. Even if there was, he isn't about to make Princey wait that long for him.

He smears some black eyeshadow on to hide the tired bags under his eyes, grabs his necessities from his previous pockets, and he's back out the door.

“Very fast,” Princey compliments as Virgil rejoins him. “I saw a bus go by.”

“Yeah, that was my usual ride to work,” Virgil says, buckling up. “We can take a more direct route and beat them there. Head out the way you came in, and then take a right at the light.”

They do, in fact, beat the bus there. Virgil heaves a sigh of relief.

“Thanks, man,” he says. “I owe you my life. Do you want some coffee? I can give you my employee discount.”

Roman smiles at him. “I would love some coffee,” he says, and turns off the engine.

There aren't any other customers in line when they go in, just Jayden behind the register.

“Morning, Sunshine,” he greets. Virgil rolls his eyes and comes round to clock in.

“Oh my gosh I love your hair,” Roman enthuses. “That is absolutely gorgeous, did you do it yourself?”

Jay's hair is gorgeous. It's mostly dyed in deep shades of blue, with a few streaks of greens and purples and the natural black. He has it in at least fifty slender box braids, which today are tied back in a loose plait running down his back. 

“Oh, no, my friends and I had a styling party,” he answers, which is the short version of the truth he uses for casual conversation with customers—especially white customers. Virgil happens to know that said styling party had been stretched out over more than a week, working their hair in increments so as not to damage it. Virgil had been invited to a few of the sessions, and is responsible for several of Jayden's braids, and some of the color.

“That is a fabulous idea; I should arrange one the next time I dye my hair,” Princey exclaims. “I've been planning to do it in every color of the rainbow!”

“Nice,” Virgil says. Princey's ear-length hair is currently what appears to be a natural brown, with reddish tips. “Stripes running front to back or side to side?”

“You know, I hadn't considered that part,” Princey says, and Virgil laughs. “What do you think?”

Virgil shrugs, and Jay considers Roman.

“Front to back, with the red on top and purple over your ears,” he says. “Perhaps with the red a bit off-center so the stripes are different sizes. That way if it’s not perfect it'll look intentional.”

Roman grins. “I like you,” he declares. “Do you want to come to my styling party?”

Jayden grins back. “Let me know when you plan it and I'll check my calendar.”

“Have you ever dyed your hair?” Roman asks Virgil, whose hair is in fact currently dyed.

“Uh, yeah,” he says, then admits, “I'm actually blond.”

“You're blond!?” Princey cries. “Oh, that is unfair, Gerard Gay! Please trade with me, I beg of you!”

“Why?” Virgil asks.

“Because then I wouldn't have to bleach!” Roman says. “I could redye my hair as soon as the roots grew out, rather than having to wait until enough has grown that I can bleach it without touching the last dye job!”

“Well, unfortunately I don't know how to trade hair colors,” Virgil says. “I think it's genetic.”

Roman groans dramatically, slumping against the counter. “The world is against me,” he complains into the glass. “You wouldn't even miss it, you dye it black! Brown is as easy to make black as blond! Easier, probably!”

Virgil reaches over and pats him sarcastically on the shoulder. “There, there,” he says. “Would coffee make you feel better?” That is why they'd come in here, after all.

“No,” Roman says grumpily, but he straightens and looks at the menu.

“Give him my discount,” Virgil says to Jayden while Roman decides. Jay flashes him a thumbs-up.

“Are the chocolate croissants good?” Roman asks.

“Not as good as what you're served at home, but yeah.”

“Hmmm.” He considers a bit longer, then orders a croissant and, with a decent amount of dithering over flavors, three coffees to go.

Jayden tells him the total and Roman pays, dropping his change and some extra bills into the tip jar. Virgil passes him the croissant, and he eats it while Virgil finishes making the coffee.

“You want a carrier for these?” Virgil asks, already putting them in one. Roman's only got two hands, after all.

“Probably best,” Roman agrees, and Virgil slides the coffee over to him. “Do you need a ride home after work?”

“Nah, I'll take the bus,” Virgil reassures him.

“Alright, if you're sure. See you later!” Princey balances the coffees in one hand so he can wave with the other, and he's off.

“So,” Jay says once the door closes behind him. “Where'd you get the suave edition of your trash rat?”

“Two-for-one special,” Virgil says. “Met him at a Halloween party Remus dragged me to.”

“Well, keep him.” Jayden nods toward the door. “Man just tipped us double what I charged him.”

~~~~

Chapter 5: The Most Accidental of Thefts

[bridgerton-bard]

Initial Thoughts on Philoise & To Sir Phillip, With Love

My initial thoughts on Philoise as a couple after listening to the audiobook. Spoilers for To Sir Phillip, With Love and all previous Bridgerton books below the fold.

I'll just start out with what I think is going to be the biggest hot take I have about Philoise, which is that I don't understand why Eloise and Phillip's love story gets as much hate as it does. I acknowledge that Phillip is not perfect, but Anthony, Benedict, Colin, and Simon aren't anywhere near perfect either.

I thought it was refreshing that Philoise's story explores a different narrative arc than all of the previous Bridgerton stories. In each of the previous books, the formula is generally Capital-R-Rake falls for Damsel-in-Distress, and his love for her (and the agency he is able to provide her as a woman married to a wealthy, powerful man) solves her problem. Yes, Colin and Kate's characters deviate from this trope slightly, but generally the arc is the same. None of the male protagonists in any of the previous 4 books had much serious interest in marrying until they met their future wife.

I thought it was interesting for Philoise's story to explore the opposite trope with Phillip in search of a wife and Eloise who had always imagined staying single. Phillip is a man who is as far from the definition of rake as possible. Eloise is a woman who is very adept at solving her own problems even within the gender dynamics of the time. I thought it was refreshing that at the beginning of the book, Phillip is already seriously looking for a wife. Of course, just like Anthony early in TVWLM, Phillip is initially looking for a marriage of convenience. However, just like Anthony's story, we see Phillip realize he has the option to have much more than a marriage of convenience.

I saw some spoilers here before I read the book and they insinuated that Phillip manipulated/duped Eloise into becoming his wife in some way . . . and that's just . . . not the case? Their wedding was rushed due to Eloise and Phillip living together unchaperoned for a week, but that wasn't Phillip's manipulation. Eloise showed up unannounced even though she knew that she should send word ahead. Phillip offered to get a chaperone if she let him know ahead of time. Also, they discussed having his aunt join them just before the Bridgerton boyband showed up, suggesting that Eloise was already pretty serious about staying and marrying Phillip. Additionally, Anthony did give Eloise the opportunity to give a good reason as to why she shouldn't marry Phillip. Knowing Anthony, if she had said that he'd acted in a way considered unmarriageable, he would have found a way to prevent Eloise from marrying Phillip.

Another underlying implication of the spoilers I saw was that Phillip was only looking for someone to basically be a governess when he started sending letters to Eloise, but I think that's a broad generalization for two reasons. First, Phillip was still grieving Marina when he started writing Eloise with the intention of considering her for marriage. I think it's one of the strongest aspects of Phillip's character that he had so much empathy and care for Marina, even though the book canon shows very clearly that she had only negative feelings for him. He lived with her for eight years as she hated him and mourned that she was married to Phillip and not his brother. Yet, he felt entirely responsible for the fact that he couldn't make Marina happy enough, at least not to kill herself.

The second reason I think this is a broad generalization, is that it's clear through Phillip's point of view in the books that although he initially considered Eloise for a marriage of convenience, he came to have a fondness for her before he knew how beautiful she was. In one of the early chapters, Phillip is shown feeling put on the spot because Eloise is so witty and usually he had time to think of the best responses to her witticisms as he was drafting his letter. Now, he wants to come off as quick and witty as he did via letter, but he's not sure he's meeting that standard. If Phillip was just looking for a marriage of convenience, he never would have put that much effort into the letters or felt so put on the spot when he met Eloise in person.

This is just my $0.02 on Philoise. If anyone out there wants to send me their thoughts as to why they don't like Philoise, I'd be interested to hear. My reblogs (and ask box) are open.

[do-androids-dream-ao3acc]

Crimson Renegade (aka The Wild West AU)

Chapter 4: Hands Up -> (Chapter 1) (Chapter 2) (Chapter 3)

Buck/Tommy. Wild West AU (sort of) / Character Study / Post-Break Up / Alternate Universe - Western / POV Evan "Buck" Buckley / Bandits & Outlaws / Time Travel / Alternate Universe - Time Travel / Time Shenanigans / Crack. [AO3 version]

Buck shrugged,  “Don’t worry about it. Let’s just say the boy had a few tricks up his sleeve.”

“So he’s a poker player?” Billy asked, confused.

“Shh, I'm thinking.”

Pondering, Buck started pacing the room. He saw Billy pull a face, but that was an expected reaction. Everyone seemed to hate it when Buck ran around like a wound-up toy, chasing his thoughts, trying to contain them, to put them in order. Well, everyone except Tommy. However, Tommy wasn't here. Well, strictly speaking, Buck shouldn't be here either, but the essence of all his problems seemed to be that Tommy wasn't around at all anymore. At least not in Buck's life, and that sucked.

He couldn’t blame Billy for not believing him, that man certainly didn’t have any inkling of a future beyond his seemingly inevitable confrontation with the law. And yet, Buck was firmly convinced of this, Billy Boils had transferred his vengeful nature into his afterlife. It was perhaps hard to believe now, while he was standing in front of Buck in the flesh, relatively calm, gun only loosely in his fist. But he didn't have it holstered away on his greasy belt either. He appeared calm on the outside, but the way he kept looking out the window was unsteady. He could have fled long ago, adrenaline made even an injured body do things that were hard to imagine later. Billy may no longer have had a horse, but the saloon offered no protection whatsoever, and since Buck knew how the gunslinger's life would end, he couldn't believe that he was actually ready to go out in a big way. At least not here, not now.

The uncomfortable truth was that Billy was truly driven by anger and revenge. His people had betrayed him, and since they probably knew him well, they would lead the Sheriff straight to him. Billy was not the type to let that happen. Buck had believed it back then, when his shoulder got dislocated on a call, and he believed it still: Billy had cursed him for using his corpse as a Halloween prank. It didn't matter that he had thought it was a prop or that he’d even given a speech at Billy’s grave. Hurting Buck and bewitching him with boils was not enough; he also had to drive Tommy away. This thought took root in Buck's mind like an evil seed. The curse lived on and on, even driving Eddie out of town. In the bad things happen bingo, Buck certainly had a strike.

“We set traps for them,” he finally said. “Nothing that'll kill them – remember we're not doing that, yeah? – but slow 'em down. Long enough for you to grab one of their horses and make a good head start.”

“Slowing them down won't be enough,” Billy opined. “The Winchester has a range of 150 yards, he’ll hit me before I even get into a gallop. And they say the sheriff is an expert shot from horseback.”

“We don't kill people. O-or horses,” Buck replied in a firm tone. “We could lure them into a shed and shut the door on them. Or we could make them think there are at least ten of us inside. If I had my phone, we could do a lot more, but it's fine like this. All we need is a few used cans and some string, and...”

“You want to chase off the Sheriff with cans and string?”

Billy didn't even sound angry, rather disappointed. For a minute, he seemed to have truly believed in Buck, that there was a way out and that it lay with the mysterious, somehow crazy stranger who had appeared so suddenly. But now he sounded like a man realizing he might have been living in a mirage. Buck had seen that look on a lot of faces, but he never would have believed he'd see it on a man who’d been dead for over a hundred years. Well, at least in his reality... time traveling was complicated, guaranteed to give you a headache.

Right now, Buck was stuck in a ghost town in the dying days of the 19th century, his only company a man without a future. The Wild West was no more, and Billy's days as an outlaw would soon be over too. This was disenchanting. But it still felt so incredibly real, perhaps even more so because of the disappointed expression on Billy’s pimpled face. This couldn't possibly be a dream. Buck's dreams were never so detailed, so... real. Still, there was a part of his mind – it must have been having trouble keeping up with everything – that somehow knew of yet another possibility. Like a word almost on the tip of his tongue, he couldn’t quite put his finger on it, and he’d rather not dwell on the thought.

Billy stared out the window again, presumably gathering his thoughts, making a new plan. A real plan. Buck let his eyes wander around the room. Maybe the idea of taking out a bunch of tough guys with guns was crazy anyway. He wasn’t much of a fighter, and with basically no resources, there wasn’t much to go with. They would certainly not let themselves be driven away by tripping them up. Kevin in the movie did at least have time to get himself some utensils from the store, but Buck, on the other hand, had at most a chair to fend off attackers – that wouldn't get him very far.

As if Billy had read his thoughts, he now said, “I've got a second revolver in my saddlebags. We'll need the bullets, right?”

“I won't shoot.”

“Then you're no use to me, buddy. Won't let you just hand me over to the Sheriff,” Billy said, raising his gun.

“No, wait,” Buck implored him. “I’m not gonna do that. We can still think of something, we...”

His gaze was suddenly drawn to something behind Billy, far out beyond the dirty glass of the Saloon’s window.

“I think someone's coming.”

Billy snorted contemptuously, “You seriously think I'm gonna fall for that?”

“No, it’s true!”

Maybe it was something in his voice that made Billy listen up, at any rate, he turned his head slightly, not without continuing to point the gun at Buck. As he froze, his face a hardened mask, Buck knew he’d seen it too.

“Step away from the window,” Billy said, backing away. Then he looked out again, quickly and cautiously. ”That's the Sheriff, I think. Damn.”

Buck followed Billy’s words, standing to the side of the small window, squinting his eyes. He couldn't see much, especially since the sun was now quite low in the sky. What had caught his eye was merely some figure, moving far in the distance. Yet there was no doubt, this had to be the sheriff.

“He seems to be alone,” he stated, not without surprise. “You said he'd bring men.”

Billy's head flicked to the window and back. He had begun to chew his lip again, and the way he was picking at his boils revealed his nervousness. Buck swallowed a comment. It wouldn't make much of a difference if Billy caught an infection because of his pustules now.

“The sheriff probably trusts my posse less than I did, good for him,” Billy pondered. “He doesn't have too many people, it's possible he's split them up.”

“Split them up?”

Billy shrugged, “'Tis not my only hideout. And with a gang of outlaws... well, Buck, dunno about your people in the asylum, but in my line of work, it's better to be safe than sorry.”

“I'm from no madhouse,” Buck replied mechanically, frowning as he pondered. “Wait. You named several escape routes to your men, but apparently never intended to go through with it? If you had found out later where the sheriff had searched, you would have known which of your men had ratted you out. A bit paranoid, but not stupid. Just... why then did you come to one of the places you named?”

Billy gave a wry smile, but there was no mirth in it. His eyes sparkled coldly as he said, “For a lunatic, you don't seem stupid, Buck. Therefore, let me give you some advice: never trust a friend. It's best to rely only on yourself. Friends are a millstone around your neck, believe me.”

“That's stupid advice,” Buck protested, ignoring Billy's piercing gaze. “No one can go through life without friends, all alone and without support.”

“Well, that won't be the only thing we disagree on,” Billy replied, shrugging. Once again, he glanced out of the window. “He's getting closer, and he’s definitely alone. Maybe he's already searched the other places and thinks I’ve long crossed the border. But he'll see the hoof prints, won't he? I was too dazed to remove them before, and then I forgot. Not a particularly glorious end… Afraid you've dug yourself into this one, mate. There's no going back. Can't let you go now.”

“W-what do you mean?”

Sweat was pooling on the nape of Buck’s neck. This was not at all how this story was supposed to end. Had he already meddled with the past too much? Billy came closer, and Buck realized that he couldn't back down, and not just because he literally had his back to the wall. Was this perhaps Billy Boils' last, ultimate revenge? Was he responsible for this journey into the past, had he led Buck directly to his still-living self in order to finish him off – to erase him completely from existence? The thought took his breath away, but there was no time to dwell on it. In the blink of an eye, Billy was beside him, throwing one arm around Buck’s neck while wagging the gun in front of his face.

“’T was your idea, remember? Let's see if the Sheriff values your life. Come on, we'll meet him at the door.”

Buck eyed the gun, then Billy. He now undoubtedly looked like a man who believed he had no other choice. Or like someone who simply took advantage of the opportunities that present themselves. And he was right, Buck had presented himself on a silver platter. Billy pulled him toward the saloon door, and Buck feverishly considered whether he should try to overpower the gunslinger. He was definitely more trained than the tough - and surprisingly small - Billy. But what if this was an opportunity to put Billy on the right path? Help him, so that his spirit would have something to remember when the time came to curse Buck? His thoughts went round in circles, and the moment passed unused. They were already standing on the narrow porch in front of the saloon, where small plants pushed through the worn wooden boards here and there, stretching towards the fading light.

Billy pushed his hat out of his forehead with the barrel of his pistol, gesturing north. The figure was fast approaching, a horse was already clearly visible.

“What a godsend,” he commented. “Sheriff’s a badass, but he’s a soft heart for... wait, what’s it again, citizen’s needs or something.”

He chuckled, apparently imitating the sheriff's voice. Buck wondered if Billy had gone mad after all that talk of madness. The sheriff must have made out Billy by now, because he was riding somewhat slower, a bit more cautious. Even as he approached, not much of the man was visible – a heavy, brown dustcoat hid his shape, and he had pulled his hat well down over his face to protect himself from the dirt that was swirling up.

The sheriff, finally recognizable by the shiny badge on his lapel, reined in just before the saloon, and Billy called out to him.

“Easy now, Sheriff. You don't want anything to happen to this innocent citizen.”

The sheriff dismounted quite casually and sauntered over, not without pushing his cloak aside in a grand gesture, presenting the gun at his hip. Billy tightened his grip on Buck's neck, his muscles tensed. But that wasn't why the blood froze in Buck's veins when the sheriff stopped a few feet from the saloon, pushing his hat back.

“T-Tommy?” Buck stammered in disbelief.

[k-nayee]

CHAPTER 4. THE FINAL EXAM

❝Brave birds still fly through the fog.❞

Vespertilio M.List

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recap

Moving towards your own station, a look of determination is set on your face.

'Time for Plan B: Do the bare minimum and go after the faux villain with zero points to say at least I tried when I truly didn't to commence!'

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You take a glance at the students around you, some having faces of confidence while others looked damn near ready to drop out.

'Okay,' after a deep breath and some short stretches you walk up closer to the gates,'let's do this!'

Right as you finish your pep talk, Present Mic's voice fills the arena.

"Start!"

You burst into a sprint, leaving the gawking and still frozen students behind in the dust as you move further into the simulated city.

"Remember listeners, there are no countdowns in a real battle! So go! You're wasting time!"

Not even a minute later the sounds of explosions and battle-cries appeared.

You had to admit, these kids were beasts when it comes to wanting to get into UA.

One moment you'd see a 1pointer, and when you blink, it was gone; bits and pieces of metal being the only evidence it ever existed.

A good portion of your time consisted of you avoiding any robots while also dodging numerous fallen metal scraps.

With your only tasks being not being flattened or spotted, it gave you enough time to observe the 'competition'.

And truth be told, you felt bad for most of them.

While those with flashier quirks stole both the show and villain points, others resorted to finding other ways to gain points - some not at all.

"Dammit!"

Your head instinctively snaps towards the source of the angered shout.

He seemed to also dodge and avoid any falling metal while failing to destroy any of the robots.

A cracking sound echoes through the air.

You look up in time to see a destroyed robot fall back into a building, causing a big chunk to break off and tumble down.

Right above the boy.

"H-hey! Look out!" Your panicked scream makes the indigo-haired boy stop and look at you in confusion.

'Shit shit shit!'

Without a second to waste, you rush over, dodging any debris on the ground as the shadow of the falling piece of rock gets bigger.

"Fucking MOVE! IT'S GONNA FLATTEN YOU!!"

It seemed your words were finally processed in his head when he looks up.

His eyes widen in fear, body frozen from shock.

Putting all you have in your legs, you let out a shout and jump.

The boy releases an oof when your body makes in contact with his, both of you rolling and tumbling across the concrete just as the debris hits the ground.

Your eyes are closed, heart thundering in your chest as you lay on the rapidly beating ground.

Wait...rapidly beating ground?

You immediately sit up, looking down at the boy you somehow ended up landing on.

He could only stare up at you in surprise as your arms caged the side of his head like some cliche romance story.

With a yelp, you roll off him and kneel next to his still laid figure.

"A-are you okay? I didn't hurt you did I?" With a quick yank, he's pulled into a sit-up position.

"I'm...I'm fine," He ignores your second question and gets up with a sigh, "just bit off more than I can chew apparently. Couldn't even avoid some falling rocks...seems I'm not hero material after all."

You notice the way his hands clench into fists as he says that.

Not wanting to deal with whatever life problems he has on his own, you began to walk away.

That is until you suddenly picture Izuku in that same position of being told he wasn't hero-worthy.

"You know you shouldn't listen to them."

He looks at your back with furrowed brows. "Huh?"

"Whoever told you those lies. That you'll never become a hero. You shouldn't give up just because some bastard tells you to do so. Quirk or quirkless, villain or hero categorized quirk. Show them you mean business. That you have a goal and plan to stick with it."

His eyes widen at your words.

For years, that's all he's been told: he would be a villain. His quirk wasn't meant for good, but evil.

To hear a random stranger finally speak the exact words he's always wanted someone to say, the fire in his heart was set ablaze.

"Hitoshi Shinso...my name is Hitoshi Shinso."

"Well HitoshiShinso," you turn to look at him with a smile, "are you gonna prove that you're more than just society's standards of a hero? Or are you just gonna quit?"

Taking his silence as an answer, you give him a wave and continue walking. "Look forward to seeing your success, HitoshiShinso! Who knows, you might be the one saving me next time we meet~"

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Minutes pass of you sneaking and passing through the fake city, occasionally helping a fellow participant whenever they're in trouble.

'Eh, what's the least that could happen? Not like I'm getting graded on helping...'

You stumble at the feeling of large tremors shaking through the ground, screams and crying reaching your ears not a second later.

You immediately dash forward, sidestepping students as they run towards the way you came from.

"Run! It's the zero-pointer!" A passing person screams out as they continue to run away.

"Wait...zero-pointer?" It took a moment before you realized what that meant causing you to bounce in excitement, "hell yes! Time to start Plan B!"

Not wanting to waste any more time, you speed towards where the zero-pointer should be.

"Wha-where are you going?!"

"You idiot! Go this way!"

"You're going to get yourself killed!"

You snort at their words. "Come on! Do you really think they're going to let children get hurt in this? I bet it's not even...that...oh shit."

Your words trail off once you take a good look at what they were running from.

There in all its glory stood the zero-pointer, enormous enough to fill the entire street while its claw-like hands caused nearby buildings to crumble just by a brush.

"Well damn...I see why y'all running." Releasing a sigh, you simply turn around with a shrug and get ready to follow the escaping crowd, "Welp, Plan B is out. So let me just go and—"

Your body stiffen at the sound before you could see them.

Screams, full of panic and distress.

Eyes zooming around the area as the thundering footsteps get nearer, you finally spot them: two people stuck in its path.

With one injured in the leg, the other was there for support as they try to run away.

Fortunately, it appeared you were the only one to notice. Unfortunately, it meant they were going to be squashed by the zero-pointer.

'Okay, I'll just grab its attention and go down another pa—' Your planning was cut off by another round of screams.

Searching for the cause, you see the zero-pointer's hand knocking into a nearby building causing some debris to crumble and fall.

Right where the two students were located.

"Are you shitting me?!"

Your heart thunders as you rush over to them, the world seems to fall into slow motion as you see them cower in preparation of getting hit.

'Think think think! It's too far to run and Zuki isn't here to take the rosary off. What can I do?!'

Body frantically moving, you pause at the familiar weight in your skirt pocket.

"Of course!"

Quickly grabbing the pouch of seeds, you grab the mini bag labeled grapes and pour the tiny seeds into your palm.

"Please let this work," with a quick mutter under your breath, you force the seeds into rapid growth and make the thick vines grow into a dome-like shape.

Not a second later, a heavy thud hits the vines.

You grit your teeth, body slightly shaking as you force the vines to hold up a little longer.

Sounds of awe come from the two students, you look up only to realize they were staring at you.

"Hi, name's Akashiya ____! Love meeting you and all," a strained smile is given as your knees began to buckle, "but I'd really appreciate it if you could leave and hide from that zero-pointer's view. Mind doing that?"

"O-oh right! Thank you for saving us, it's very manly of you!" The black-haired boy breaks out of the trance first and sends you a sharp toothy smile.

Sending him a sharp head jerk towards the direction of a couple of fallen debris to hide behind, he catches the hint and takes the injured girl away.

"The name's Kirishima Eijiro by the way!" His fading voice makes you relax in relief.

"Whew! Now that's ove—"

Your words are cut off by the sudden crash of both vines and pieces of rock.

On top of you.

Kirishima's wide eyes stare at the pile, mouth dropped open as he became a witness of a possible death.

It wasn't until he heard a few hacking coughs did he spot your disheveled form fanning away the floating dust around.

"Are you alright?!"

"Yeah!" You scratch the back of your head with a sheepish grin, "Turns out I relaxed too much after you left. Caused my powers to weaken and crash. B-but I'm fine, the rocks fell behind me. Look!"

Jumping up, you give a huge thumbs up causing the boy to let out a small laugh.

"TARGET ACQUIRED."

Once again, damn.

A jolt of fear travel down your spine, body shaking as you face the zero-pointer before you.

You just had to jump around like a dumbass just to prove to some cute boy that you're alright.

Not to mention your juice pack. Oh, your uneaten juice pack! Poor baby was the only thing that truly faced harm by the collapse.

Half of its contents was wasted, leaving a giant bloodstain covering the side of your skirt as the finishing result.

And so, this is how you're going to leave the world: dead with blood on your skirt as if you had the period of a lifetime.

Tears pricked the corner of your eyes as you back away from the metal beast only to stop at the debris-made wall behind you.

At this point, you wished everything actually did collapse on top of you when it fell. At least they can say you died saving others.

You blink at a sudden realization. "Wow. I'm really gonna die a hero. The one thing I've avoided doing for nearly fifteen years of my life. The irony I tell ya."

The zero-pointer loomed over your trembling form.

Adrenaline rush faded, your exhausted body refused to take another step.

'Move...why won't you move!' Hands clenched into fists, flashes of your parents fill your head, flashes of Izuku's smiling face, hell even a scowling Bakugo.

Your head bows as tears continue to spill from your eyes, feet glued to the ground as you accepted defeat.

Unbeknownst to you, your rosary begins to glow, steadily growing brighter which each passing second.

"AKASHIYA GET AWAY FROM THERE!" Kirishima's shrill scream was the tipping point.

The rosary's red glow suddenly cuts off.

The once healthy flowers in your hair suddenly wilt and fall to the ground. Silvery white bleeds into your locks until no strand of [hair color] is left behind.

Your eyes open, revealing a set of blood-red irises.

The slitted pupils in your eyes thin as they take in the situation around them, landing on the charging faux villain with a hint of humor in them.

"Oh? Seems to be a test of some sor—"The zero-pointer punches the spot you're standing at causing a scream of disbelief to fall from Kirishima and other examinees around.

Dust billows around the area as people began to murmur.

"Is...is she dead?"

"I never knew there would be actual deaths in these exams..."

"Poor girl."

Kirishima's pupils shake as he continues to stare at where he last saw you.

Nothing but a crater and a patch of blood as a reminder of your existence.

You saved him...

...only to die.

"Poor girl indeed," the dust clears revealing you standing a few feet away from the crater with a blank, unamused face, "not only did you try to defeat me by some measly punch, but you even wasted the rest of my lunch. Tsk tsk, didn't your creator ever teach you manners?"

The robot attempts to attack you again only to fail.

Within a blink, you appear on the robot's shoulder. "Hmm...appears not."

You avoid the grappling hand and jump onto its other shoulder.

"Let me make it clear, you scrap piece of metal."

With a small lift of your foot, you stomp on its arm, causing the metal to tear off and land on the ground with a loud thud.

You miss the gawks and gasps of the audience around you as you focus on the zero-pointer.

"I'm not one to be trifled with." You do the same to its other arm, leaving it defenseless as it stands there.

Even so, the faux villain continues to walk up to you as if it can still beat you. A small smile pulls at your lips.

"You know...I'm actually in awe. Such drive, such motivation," your smile drops, a snarl of disgust taking its place, "almost pitiful to watch. Robot or not, you will never defeat me!"

Jumping into the air with such grace, you land a kick to its head, sending the metal contraption meters away until it finally lands with a blinding explosion.

You brush your hair back with an indignant sniff. "Just as I thought: weak..."

"TIME'S UP!" The booming voice of Present Mic fills the area.

People immediately flock towards you asking question after question only to stop with one sharp glare.

Most deciding their life is better to have, they continue towards the exit to seek help for any injuries.

"Recovery Girl is on her way, so just stay tight!"

"T-thank you for trying to help me earlier."

"Of course! It wouldn't have been very manly of me if I hadn't."

Your body stiffens. Taking another breath of air, the slits in your eyes thin once again as a sweet scent fills your nose.

'Mmmm, so there are others like him.'

Kirishima flinches at the sudden sight of you before him. "A-akashiya!"

Everything about you was different. From the change of hair color to the disappearance of the calming scent you gave off.

Your eyes are what troubled him the most.

No longer did they hold a certain kind of warmness in them, but instead pure coldness.

His body shakes as you continue to observe him, it took nearly all the self-control he has to keep himself from running away.

Especially when you grab his chin and force him to look at you.

"Yes, you will do," his brows furrow in confusion until you look him dead in the eyes, "when I faint, offer me your neck."

A flush fills the boy's face. "W-what?!"

"That shouldn't be too hard. It's the least you could do after I risked both my life and wasted my food saving you." You narrow your eyes at him, daring him to defy.

Kirishima mouth purses. 'She's right. It's the least I could do. What kind of man would I be if I can't help a fellow comrade in need!'

With a sigh, he gives you a nod despite his eyes still shining with hesitation. "Alright...I'll do it."

Just as he says that, your rosary turns back on, causing your retransformation.

He let out a gasp of awe at the sight of your red eyes shifting back to [eye color].

Silver hair turning back into its original [hair color] shade, new pink blossoms bud back into its strands with a scent of nectarine wafting off you once more.

You began to lean with a groan before falling to the ground.

"Woah!" Grabbing your shoulders, Kirishima gently sits on his knees and holds you in his arms. "I've got ya...I've got ya."

You feel someone tenderly brushing some hair from your face and let out a jumbled mass of unintelligible words.

Blinking open your eyes, everything is blurred and out of focus. The only thing you could pick up on was a scent of sweetness.

'Zuki? He's here...that must mean—'

"...blood..."

Even with your word being soft and slurred Kirishima understood.

"U-um...here," though still hesitant, he shyly pulls you closer, giving your mouth clear access to his neck.

Feeling skin against your lips with the beating of a pulse just underneath the layer, you immediately sink your teeth in.

A glow of red directs Kirishima's attention to the rosary hanging at your neck.

Huh?

Why is it glowing?

You let out a sigh of content after a few more moments of drinking Izuku's blood.

Although...something about it tastes different...

Pulling away from his neck, you blink your eyes a few more times only for them to widen in shock.

Ummm...what the FUCK is this?! This ain't Izuku!

Voice caught in your throat, you're unable to speak.

"Are you alright? Did you have enough to drink?" The concern in Kirishima's eyes causes all awkwardness to melt away.

Your lips soften into a smile. "Yeah. Thank you by the way. I'm sure you were uncomfortable doing something like this."

A spiky grin fills your view as he helps you up off the ground. "Nonsense! After you willingly saved me and that girl, I couldn't let you stay weak when I could help. Wouldn't be very manly of me."

"____!"

You turn to see Izuku waving near the entrance of the gate.

"Ah..." Looking back towards Kirishima, you send him an apologetic smile and bow, "I'm sorry! I wish our time was longer, but it seems my friend is ready to go. It was very nice to meet you! Thank you for everything, really I mean it."

A blush fills his cheeks as he rubs the back of his neck. "I should be the one thanking you for everything! It's the least I could do after you saved my butt. Hopefully, we will end up in the same hero-course class?"

Despite wanting to tell him you most definitely won't end up in hero course due to lack of points, you decide on simply smiling. "Fingers cross. Who knows, we may see each other very soon!"

"Alright!"

With a wave of goodbye, you run towards Izuku with an excited grin, ready to tell him the events of today and vice-versa.

[silverirony]

tell me about the basalt basilicas of hauran and your beef with butler please im very curious to know this now.

!!!

so this has a lot to do with what a basilica is. there's the Christian basilica, which is just any church that was important/cool/old enough to get the title from the pope (there's around 2000 of those in the world), the oldest one is the basilica of st john lateran in Rome, aka the archbasilica. but basilica is also an architectural form, which essentially means usually rectangular building with one main nave and at least 2 side aisles and an apse. it's important that the nave is taller than the aisles and has windows in the clerestory, otherwise it's not a basilica (see diagram below, triforium is optional).

so, not every christian basilica is a basilica in the architectural sense. to put it simply:

a church where the nave and aisles are the same height -> ❌that's a hall church

a church where the nave is taller than the aisles but doesn't have windows -> ❌that's a pseudo-basilica

a church where the nave is taller and has windows -> ✔️that's a basilica!! yay!!

this is an important distinction because when archaeologists find ancient churches most of the time it's just foundations, so they decide if a church was a basilica based on how many aisles it had. and normally that's not a problem, because if your church is wide and tall and has multiple aisles, you need the windows in the clerestory an a gable roof, otherwise the construction won't construct properly. the thing is, that's most cases, not all.

ok now imagine you're howard crosby butler, it's 1905, you're an architect (so you know everything I just explained), and you just convinced your friend to sponsor your huge trip to syria. you get to syria, you do your little sketches, which, btw are the most beautiful drawings of this architecture ever created, I mean:

(they don't draw anything like this anymore fr)

and it's all well and good, until you get to southern Syria, particularly to the basalt plateau of Hauran (also partially north jordan), where suddenly the churches aren't churching. a normal basilica build from limestone or sandstone (image above), vs the basalt "basilica" (image below)

the first time i saw this i was like "wym 'basilica' this is clearly a hall church, was he stupid?" and there was no immediate explanation why he decided this was a basilica, and you can't do that sir ma'am, you have to show your thinking. it pissed me off so bad I dedicated like a chapter of my bachelor's thesis to this. so here's the thing:

usually a church of this size would need a clerestory and a gabled roof

that is because you can't cover a 10m-wide nave with a single slab of stone, because it will be too heavy and it will break under its own weight

UNLESS you're building stuff out of basalt, which is so dense and special and tough and beautiful that you can absolutely do that

so if you don't feel like building a a whole clerestory and then calculating the proper triangle for a roof, and have some basalt, you can just

slab

and when i went digging deeper i found this quote from butler himself:

Butler 1929, 17

anyway, so my beef with some random architect who's been dead for almost 100 slutty, slutty years, is 1. words have meanings, definitions even; 2. how do you have a whole ass degree in architecture and then name the architecture in question the wrong thing; 3. I realize this is because of the "3 aisles = basilica" tradition, but well maybe I'm pedantic and maybe it shouldn't be. maybe (I realize it's because basilica has a certain status and these churches did too, but like. we should invent separate names for them. maybe); 4. I had to dig for the basalt-roof slabs-no clerestory explanation, because it's not like butler himself ever explains any of this, I had to harass my geology professor; and 5. the plans are also wrong about the dimensions but we don't have time for this rn

the moral of this story is that it's always ethically and morally wrong to say that a hall church is a basilica, and that basalt is super cool and I love it. peace and harmony on planet earth

[cherrythepuppet]

corpse Puppet [Part 4]

AU belongs to @sketchquill [Probably fed up with me at this point lol but this fanfic is gonna be 15 or 14 chapters long]

"Right. Oh, right!" (Y/n) said as they grabbed a candle With this. This-..." they paused once more as they tried to remember "Hand" Pastor Kermit said"Right With this hand l-..With-" (Y/n) contiued as they took four steps foward

"Three steps, three!" Pastor Kermit yelled"Can you not count? Do you not wish to be married, (Y/n) (L/n)!?" He yelled "No! No!" (Y/n) said before realizing what it sounded like "You do not?" Howdy asked seemingly hurt a bit"No! l meant, no, l do not not wish to be married That is, l want very much to-"

(Y/n) was cut off by pastor Kermit yelling at them again "Pay attention! Have you even remembered to bring the ring?" he asked as (Y/n) searched their pockets "The ring? Yes. Of course!" They said (Y/n) fumbled with he ring for a moment before accidentally dropping it "Dropping the ring!" Pastor Kermit yelled "Oh, no! They dropped the ring!" Mother yelled

"This girl doesn't want to get married!" Pastor Kermit yelled "How disgraceful!" Lord piller yelled (Y/n) chased after the ring but knocked over a candle and accidentally set Lady piller's dress on fire causing everyone to panic"woman on fire! Help! Emergency!" Father yelled "Oh, l hope it doesn't stain" Mother yelled as she began fanning the fire thinking it would put it out

"Stop fanning it, you fool!" Lady piller yelled "Get a bucket, get a bucket!" Lord piller yelled then julie dumped a cup of wine onto Lady piller's dress "Enough! This wedding cannot take place until They are properly prepared!" Pastor Kermit yelled as he approached (Y/n)

"Young One, learn your vows" He said as he pointed a finger at (Y/n) making them almost have an Anxiety attack causing them to run out of building "Well They're quite the catch, aren't They?" Julie said sarcastically(Y/n) was walking around the streets as they stopped when and leaned over a stone bridge "Oh, Howdy...He must think l'm such a fool" They mumbled

 "This day couldn't get any worse" (Y/n) said just then they heard the town crier "Hear ye, hear ye! Rehearsal in ruins as (L/n) Child causes chaos! Fishy fianc could be canned! Pillers all fired up as (L/n) disaster ruins rehearsal!" (Y/n) sighed "Hey cheer up!" Eddie exclaimed as he walked up to (Y/n) "lt really shouldn't be all that difficult! lt's just a few simple vows" They groaned

"Y'know it's not that bad" Eddie said "How so? Because I set his mother on fire!" (Y/n) mumbled "Ooh- yeah that's way worst then what happened at my wedding rehearsal" Eddie chuckled "You got married?" (Y/n) asked "Yes I did" Eddie said with a smile, looking down at his ring and thinking about his love. "His name was Frank and he was such a bookworm.""A bookworm? How did you two meet?" (Y/N) asked, seeming to have forgotten about the problem before

"Well I had actually crashed into him while delivering some mail, I had apologized so many times and then we talked more and became friends" Eddie replied, the fond memory of their first meeting bringing a smile to his face"Your first meeting went better then mine at least" (Y/n) mumbled then sighed "Could I meet your husband? He sounds lovely" (Y/n) asked which made Eddie frown slightly

"I'm afraid you can't as that is rather impossible" he chuckled "How so?" (Y/n) asked "He died fifteen years ago" Eddie mumbled "Oh...Oh! Eddie I'm so sorry! I didn't know and-"he cut (Y/n) off "Please don't apologize! Like you said You didn't know" Eddie saidThen you both heard a loud ringing "Oh goodness! Look at the time! I am sorry (Y/n) but I need to finish delivering the mail! I hope everything works out for you" eddie told them before rushing off

(Y/n) now alone at the bridge sighed and decided to venture out into the woods as well as trying to remember their vows

"With this hand, l will take your wine-...No Thats not right at all" They mumbled "With this hand l will cup your- Oh, goodness, no!" (Y/n) groaned "With this...With this...With this candle, l will-...l will...l will set your mother on fire" (Y/n) sighed as they sat on an old log next to a large oak tree with an old axe in it

"Oh, it's no use..." They mumbled "Perhaps I'm just not cut out for this...I never even wanted to be married to anyone! The only one I did love left me for some other women" (Y/n) said "I can't even remember his name..." they muttered as they stood up now going to attempt the vows once more

"With...this hand l will lift your sorrows Your cup will never empty, for l will be your wine!""With this candle, l will light your way in darkness. With this ring...l ask you to be mine!" (Y/n) exclaimed as they put the ring on a stick that looked like a hand

(Y/n) smiled in accomplishment proud that they remembered theit vows but then they noticed the thousands of crows watching her and the eerie silence "Yeah this isn't creepy at all..." (Y/n) mumbled as they looked around when suddenly a plush hand grabbed onto their hair "What the-?! OW!" They yelled

They pulled the plush hand off their hair and threw it onto the ground The silence scared them as they heard sounds if something breaking, (Y/n) looked towards the oak tree and saw the ground shaking and beginning to break open....

[fertilize-my-eggs]

Send to the mha omegaverse ch.2

Finding tomura shigaraki ch.1 ch.3 ch.4 ch.5 A03

A/N: I hope y'all enjoy this chapter!! It's a bit short but I hope y'all enjoy this ☺️ every chapter will be posted on Thursday. 18+ NO minor, antis and ageless blogs interact with my blog thanks you (⁠.⁠ ⁠❛⁠ ⁠ᴗ⁠ ⁠❛⁠.⁠) y/n= your name, l/n= last name

✩｡♡ ࣪ ˖❀ ⑅ *✩｡♡ ࣪ ˖❀ ⑅ *✩｡♡ ࣪ ˖❀ ⑅ *✩｡ ♡ ࣪ ˖❀ ⑅ *

Great just great… not only that I'm in my hero academia but also as an omega. I look at izuku’s feet, I can't make eye contact because of this stupid quirk.

“ So are you an alpha or a beta? ” I ask him as he is still hold his nose, he nervously scratch his neck.

“ y-yeah, I'm an alpha… ” ahh that makes sense, I slowly look at his neck to notice he has a mark… huh? I read some fanfic where alpha doesn't get marks. Does that mean…

“ I don’t have anything to get patches.. ” I sigh heavily, where am I supposed to go in this world? I don't have anything nor a place to stay. This is gonna be a problem.

I put my thumb on my lips as I think, if I don't exist in my world does that mean I'm… dead? No, my family is probably worried about me and wondering where I went. Yeah that could be it.

“ don't worry miss, I got patches for you. ” I see his hand in my view as I grab it from him.

“ uhh this is an odd question but what do I smell like? "Izuku start to blush as he look away.

“ you smell lovely like…. Strawberry cheesecake.. sweet scent." Okay now it makes sense why he is holding his nose, it's because I smell good to him.

I put the patch on my neck as I saw his hand out. “ There's some extra, I gotta get going…” I grab some and put it in my pocket.

As soon as he leaves, we hear loud commotion nearby as we watch the scene unfold.

I looked at Izuku as he was in shock as he screamed out.” THAT’S MY BOYFRIEND!! ” I watch him run straight to the crowd of people as I look straight ahead to realize… Bakugou was covered by the slime villain as I watched izuku run towards it saving his boyfriend? So it's not canon mha in my world where they're enemies but in this universe they're boyfriends. Now it makes sense why izuku has a mark on his neck.

I-… maybe I shouldn't be around, I'll probably affect this world but this doesn't make any sense, I shouldn't be here, I shouldn't be in this universe at all.

I walk away from the crowd feeling like deja vu as I look at myself in the window. It feels odd that I look the same but in an anime style version of myself. 

I blink a few times as I begin to walk away, I pause as I thought to myself.

Maybe I can look for the villains.. Tomura shigaraki in this world, I gotta find him, I can finally have my moments with him and be with my favorite character… well I can't say character anymore since I exist in their world.

But in a city like this, there is no way I can find him as I sighed in defeat.

Well at least I gotta try, I started to look everywhere. In alleyways and to suspicious shady areas. No luck.

I sighed heavily as I sat down on the streets, there was no way I'd be able to find him. I looked up to accidentally make eye contact with a stranger as I felt fear run down my spine as I immediately stood up.

The man smirks wide as he walks towards me.” well well well what a pretty lil omega doing here all by herself? You should come with me, you're mine. ” oh god no, my quirk is affecting him as I begin to run away as fast as possible.

I heard him screaming behind me as I started to panic and feel tears coming out, I've never felt like this. Never been chased by someone and I feel like I could die any minute in this world.

As I ran away forward not knowing where to go as I saw twice?? He ran past me as he started to fight the man who was chasing after me.

I couldn't believe Jin was helping me out, he was not wearing his mask. Maybe this is before he joined the League, I watch them fight each other for a good three minute until the man says.” this is pointless you can have the dumb omega, I’m leaving…” I put my hand on my chest feeling out of breath as I collapsed into the floor, tears running down my cheeks as I held myself as I began to sob.

I hear footsteps coming near as he spoke softly.” hey omega, I saw you getting chased from my window.. are you okay? No she ain’t, should have left her to him. ” I smile hearing him speak, I look at his shoulder a bit.

“ thank you…. I can't make eye contact because of my quirk. ” I see him moving his head to the side in confusion. 

“.... is that how you got chased? ”

“ mhmm.. my quirk is called lovestruck if I look you in the eyes, you'll be like that man. ” I hold myself tight feeling scared for my life.. you would think this world is easy but you get chased by strangers and not to mention you don't know what their true intention will lead if he caught me.

I see his hand in front of me as he said.” lemme help you up, I'm Jin Bubaigawara.. ” I smile softly as I shake his hand.

“ I'm… y/n...   y/n l/n.'' He has a mark on his forehead so did it happen before? It looks a bit fresh but I won't question it as I stand up. Jesus Christ how is he taller than me, he looks like he can easily carry me around with no issues as I started to blush.

Well I'm 5’4 so he gotta be around five something…

“ you can live with me for now, I don't have much… don't be a messy pig. Crap I'm sorry about that I-.. ” I shake my head as I giggle.

“ It's okay, I understand.. is it your quirk that is costing it? "Wait, wouldn't he be confused by me saying that, would he get suspicious of me asking him that.

He turned his head away as he scratched his neck.” yeah my quirk… it's hard to talk about it.”

“  I understand, I won't ask you anything about it if it makes you uncomfortable. ” I pat his shoulder lightly as he smile a bit.

“ thank you y/n. ” I follow behind him as we head to his apartment.

[bluekat12345]

He's my son, not yours! Part 4

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Another shout-out for @gelu-the-babosa-multiversal, thank you for letting me write this! And sorry for taking so long again! Hope you and everyone else enjoys this chapter!

After what was possibly the worst night of his life, Charlie finally forced himself out of bed. Looking at the alarm, he saw that it was around 10am. He groaned as he realized he had woken up late, he'd missed breakfast with his family, and he definitely missed morning patrol with Chase.

"Did anyone even try to wake me up?" He bitterly asked himself.

Looking in the mirror, he cringed at how he looked. His hair was messy, there were visible bags under his eyes, and his eyes looked dull and unfocused. Heck even his mustache was disheveled!

Before he could ponder more on how bad he looked, his phone went off. Looking at the number, he recognized it as Nick Fury. Picking up the phone, he took a deep breath before answering it.

"Morning, Director Fury." Charlie greeted, hoping the man couldn't tell how exhausted or depressed he was.

"Morning, Chief Burns." Fury replied. "Glad to hear from you. When you didn't arrive for the 9am meeting we scheduled, I wondered what was going on."

Chief Burns mentally cursed himself. "Sorry, sir. I overslept this morning, and it must've slipped my mind."

"No tears shed." Fury declared. "We've rescheduled to 12pm. Should there be no emergency at that time, can we see you there?"

Charlie nodded. "Yes, sir. I'll be there."

"We'll need your family and the bots there too." Fury clarified. "And as long as he doesn't cause trouble, you can bring your youngest son along too."

"Cody?" Charlie asked. "Why would he cause trouble?"

"I just don't want anyone getting distracted." Fury explained. "Your son is a good kid, but he has been distracting some-"

Chief didn't even let him finish his sentence before snarling. "Well, they don't have be around Cody all the time." It was only after he said that a twinge of embarrassment entered his mind.

Fortunately, Fury didn't comment on that. "If you think it's going to be a problem, you can just not bring him."

"He won't be coming." Chief Burns declared. A part of him was actually glad of how tired he was so no one, not even him, could tell how happy he was. Cody would be at school, so he wouldn't be able to attend.

And Captain America wouldn't be around him trying to play dad.

"Very well." Fury responded. "See you then."

When the call ended, Charlie allowed himself to take another deep breath, feeling a little bit better today. Cody not being there would, meaning there wouldn't be a chance for Steve Rogers to show off that he could be a better father than him.

He figured he should get cleaned up so he could be a bit more presentable for that meeting. But before he did so, he figured he should get something to eat first. Toast sounded good.

But as he walked to the kitchen, he was greeted by an unexpected sound.

"Are you okay, Dad?" Looking at the kitchen table, Charlie saw Cody sitting there.

"Cody? What are you doing here?" Charlie asked. "Shouldn't you be in school."

Cody frowned at him. "Dad, it's Saturday."

Charlie mentally cursed himself. How could he forget that?

He couldn't help but let out a low groan when he realized what that meant. "Now I have no choice but to bring him to the meeting."

"Dad, are you sick?" Cody asked, his voice full of concern. Charlie couldn't help but feel a bit happy by that. At least he knew his son still cared about him.

"I'm fine." Chief Burns declared. "But there's going to be a meeting with Fury later today, so we're going to need to go to the base on 12."

"Noble!" Cody exclaimed with a smile. "That means we can see the Avengers again. I've been dying to see the upgrade to Captain America's motorcycle."

Charlie had to fight the anger bubbling inside of him. "Cody, this is a meeting, not a social call. I need you to stay out of trouble and not distract anyone while that's happening. Understand?"

Cody frowned bit, but nodded. "Okay, Dad. I understand."

"Good." Charlie replied. "We'll leave at 11:30."

At the Avengers' temporary base, Steve Rogers was polishing his motorcycle, spending time as he waited for the meeting with Fury and the Burns family to start.

Admittedly, he was a little disappointed when he heard Cody wouldn't be joining them, but he could understand why. This was just a meeting, an admittedly boring meeting that was basically discussing and reviewing the same thing they already have. Cody would've been bored out of his mind waiting for it to end, since he wouldn't be able to actually attend.

"You still sulking?" Tony's voiced teased. "Gotta accept that the kid won't be around all the time."

Rolling his eyes, Steve stopped polishing and faced his teammate. "I'm not sulking. And I actually think it's for the best he won't be joining. The poor boy would be bored while waiting for the meeting to end."

Tony shrugged. "Whatever you gotta tell yourself." Just as he was about to walk off, he quickly added. "He's here, just so you know."

That caught Rogers by surprise. "What are you talking about?"

"The kid showed up after all." Ironman answered. "Don't know why, all I know is that his dad decided to bring him after all. And I can only imagine who'd he want to see the most."

Captain Rogers frowned. "Tony, if this is a joke-"

"He's here, I swear on my honor." Tony promised. "I saw him and his family pull up here. Follow me."

Deciding he had nothing to lose, he followed Ironman. And as promised, Cody and the rest of the Burns family, along with the Rescue Bots.

"Good to see you all again." He greeted.

"Good to see you too, Captain Rogers!" Cody happily greeted. Steve smiled at the boy.

The rest of the Burns siblings gave their greetings, all of them polite, but as enthusiastic as Cody's. But Chief Burns didn't seem to respond. In fact, the more Captain America looked at the police chief, the more he could see how unwell the man looked, there were visible bags under his eyes and his stance was tense.

"Chief Burns, is everything alright?" He asked.

"Peachy." Chief Burns replied, sounding rather grumpy. Then he noticed the children frown and tense up.

And Tony seemed to notice as well. "Well, we have time before we have to attend that boring meeting, how about you guys relax, talk to the rest of the team." Then he smiled at Cody. "Speaking of which, kid, Cap has been dying to-"

"No!" Chief Burns exclaimed, startling about everyone there, even getting the attention of anyone who had the misfortune of walking by and hearing that.

"Chief Burns, what's wrong?" Captain America asked.

"I'm fine." The police chief, unconvincingly, replied. "Just had a rough night."

"Keep it together, Charlie." Charlie told himself as he tried to calm himself.

He shouldn't have snapped like that, but he didn't want to deal with his issue with Captain America already. He just wants to get this meeting over with and deal with this another time, when he as enough energy to deal with it.

"Well, we still have some time before the meeting starts." Tony declares. "The breakroom has some good doughnuts if any of you wants one."

His elder kids agreed rather quickly, but only Cody shook his head.

"I was actually hoping to check out the new upgrade to Captain Rogers' motorcycle, first." Cody suggested.

Charlie didn't give Captain Rogers a chance to respond. "Not today, Cody. We don't have time for that today."

"I don't mind." Captain America replied, in an infuriatingly friendly manner.

"Well, I said not today." Charlie declared, getting annoyed.

"Oh, c'mon." Tony insisted. "What's the harm in-"

"I didn't ask for your opinion!" Charlie snapped. Before anyone could say anything, he turned to Steve. "And I don't need you getting involved in Cody's life!"

"What are you talking about?" Steve asked. At that moment, Charlie wasn't sure what enraged him more: The nerve of Steve to ask such a question or the fact that Steve actually looked like he didn't know.

"You know fully well what I'm talking about!" Chief Burns exploded. He heard his older kids' voices, probably trying to calm him, but he ignored them. "Ever since you got here, you've done nothing but be around Cody, acting like he was your son, and practically rubbing it in my face that you could be a better father to him than me!"

Captain Rogers started at him, his face mixed with confusion, concern. "Sir, I-"

"Well, I don't need you to play father!" Charlie declared. "He's my son, not yours!"

The room fell into a tense, uncomfortable silence. And it was only then that Charlie fully realized what he had said. Humiliation, regret, and shame splashed all over him as he finally calmed down. He looked around, saw his kids, Captain Rogers and Tony Stark stare at him in shock, concern, and surprise, and to his misfortune, his rant seemed to have attract some bystanders as well. He felt his pulse race and his head spin as he saw bystanders stare and whispered among themselves. They all seemed to be shield agents, so he tried to take some solace in that, he knew it would've been much worse if anyone from Griffin Rock recognized and saw him act like this.

"Dad." He heard Cody's voice call to him, always gentle and caring, but now, that voice made him feel even sicker. He felt someone try to grab his hand, but Chief Burns quickly pulled his hand away, as if the faint touch had burned him.

Then he quickly charged out. He heard voices call to him, but he once again ignored them. He needed to leave. He needed to be alone before he did or said something else he would regret.

This should not have taken as long as it did. I apologize for taking so long and I'm sorry if this seems rather lackluster compared to the others, but I hope you enjoyed reading it.

[mari-lair]

I have noticed a lot of the stuff you have been saying about Tsukasa and I just want to point out: Tsukasa isn't Tsukasa. As in, he isn't Hanako's brother.

This was revealed during the Red House arc. The OG Tsukasa made a wish to the spirit of the red house and as a price for granting it, the real Tsukasa would be trapped in the red house forevermore and the spirit took Tsukasa's place. (at least that's how I understood it).

This spirit was able to do what is canonically impossible for the school mysteries to do at present. For one thing, Amane was supposed to die at age 3 (supposedly) but OG Tsukasa wished for him to live and the spirit granted it.

You could argue that Amane could have gotten better regardless, but we don't know that for sure. At present, the spirit changed Amane's future which shouldn't be possible.

This spirit that poses as Amane's brother has powers far beyond the School Mysteries... so it's not exactly breaking canon to have him be able to defeat them.

This chapter wasn't a good look for the series, but it's not entirely out of canon for fake Tsukasa to have these abilites.

Sorry, this got a little long. My question is: What are your general thoughts on Tsukasa? Why do you think Hanako killed him and do you think Hanako will do it again? If Tsukasa is his yorishiro then the only people who can destroy him are Hanako and Yashiro.

I really like seeing your TBHK theories and art!

Thank you, I'm happy you enjoyed my art and thoughts.

I will not go on a rant on Tsukasa here. Despite what my last post may indicate, I don't like to talk about the aspects of a show that I dislike, I preffer to focus on the moments I enjoy.

But thankfully I did do a small analysis on Tsukaka before! At least, on my take about the Red House and what is going on there.

Personally, I believe there is only one Tsukasa. He is Hanako's brother through the entire thing. If you wanna check my reasoning as to why I believe this, here is the explanation.

As for the other part of the ask...

I am not saying it is unbelievable that Tsukasa got a rule-breaking power that makes the mysteries look weak in comparation, he kidnapped no.4, destroyed no.3, and so on. I didn't even mention that he used kokujoudai without permission on another mystery boundary (ya-rr-ow made a short post that this is a rule break: here ) because that's not the point. He is op. I may dislike his deux ex machina energy, but it is consistent that he is more powerful than basically everyone, that's not an issue that suddenly showed up in this chapter.

What I do have a problem with is the way he damages other characters for the sake of this "I am so op!" energy, taking away from established narratives and tension (like how it was established he can't escape No.1 restraints, and feels weak with them, so Aidairo just made the clock keepers not restraint him again. Made them be incompetent to make Tsukasa shine) and that makes me ironically not care about his character anymore, when a long time ago, he used to be one of my favorites.

[nights-flying-fox]

Deep (Purple) Thoughts (and Realizations)

◇ Click here to read on AO3 | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 6 ◇

Chapter 4: Tell the Truth

Donnie wants the truth from Leo, but his twin has never been the best at telling the truth.

 Leo would’ve taken them if I didn’t.

 As Donnie walked he couldn’t stop thinking about what Shelldon had told him.

 I watched the security cameras, he came to the lab yesterday too.

 What was Leo up to? Why would he want the recordings? To watch them? Delete them? At least now he had an answer to what Leo was up to in his lab. Maybe he really had heard them, or maybe he was already in the lab long before Donnie and April decided to watch the records.

 Yet, Donnie couldn’t place his finger on what Leo exactly was up to. He knew his twin well. They all knew how he disliked facing his negative emotions, not sharing them easily. Was it why he was acting like that? But why? Did he want to find something? Watch something certain? Take the files, as Shelldon said? Delete everything, forever?

 Did he want to hide the truth from everyone, delete it, and hide his feelings again?

 Donnie wasn't sure if that made sense. But he couldn't know until he asked Leo. 

 Getting out of Shelldon's room he didn't pay mind to his family. They probably were arguing over something dumb or Raph was telling them why they shouldn't be up so late. Donnie right now had a different task in his mind. 

 "Leo," He called to the turtle that was sitting on his table. 

 "Oh hey Dee! Figured out the problem with the recordings?" Leo turned to look at him and Shelldon.

 Donnie didn't answer his question. "Why did you want to get the records?" 

 He briefly saw the surprise on Leo's face. He was quick to act as if he didn't know anything though, "I don't know what you're talking about."

 "Nardo, don't lie to me. I know you came here last night. I know you wanted the records. But I don't understand why." Donnie said. "Is that why you were here tonight? That was your plan from the start?" 

 The room was quiet now. April, Raph and Mikey were watching them. 

 Leo looked away, "Okay okay, you caught me. I came to the lab and wanted to see the records." He admitted. "I was a bit curious, that's all."

 Liar. "Then why didn't you watch them last night?"

 "Who said I didn't?" Leo smirked.

 "Do you really want me to prove it?" Donnie challenged. 

 They stared at each other for a moment. Then Leo sighed, giving up. "Fine. I was here to watch them because I couldn't last night. You are right." He huffed.

 "Why?" Donnie wanted to know, not get a confession from him.

 "It doesn't matter really." Leo shrugged. 

 "It matters to me." Donnie stated. "I want an answer, Leo."

 He looked at Donnie, he didn't seem to be eager to have this conversation. But Donnie wanted answers. 

 Silence kept going on for a while. It was uncomfortable and overwhelming, but Donnie waited. He was glad the rest of his family didn't interrupt. 

 At last, Leo spoke. "Don, I know you don't just record from your point of view."

 Donnie hadn't told them. How could Leo know about this? "You know? How-?" 

 "How else would you know about the thing?" Leo pointed out. The thing, a.k.a. that time Leo tried to make a backflip and failed in a very funny and stupid way. It was Donnie’s precious blackmail. 

 "Good observation." Donnie nodded.

 “What thing?” Mikey asked.

 “Nothing.” Leo and Donnie said.

 "Donnie, when were you planning telling us about this?" Raph cut in.

 "Soooooooon?" Donnie tried.

 Raph shook his head, "You are getting another talk about privacy mister."

 “Privacy? Leo is also guilty here, how did you even figure out my password?” 

 “It wasn’t hard.”

 “I changed it multiple times and added extra security ones.” 

 Leo simply shrugged, “Not a problem for me.”

 “Donnie, we are having a talk.” Raph repeated.

 Donnie huffed, "Can we do this later? Because I still don't know why Leo wants those records."

 "Come on Donnie, it is–"

 "Important." Donnie interrupted. "Speak."

 Leo groaned. "It really isn't. Why do you even care?"

 Donnie was about to explain why he cared and why it mattered, but Mikey beat him to it:

 "Leo, I know you don't like talking about what happened that day but… is it about your time in Prison Dimension?" 

 Silence. Averted eyes, a sigh. 

 Mikey approached him with a soft and encouraging smile, "Talking helps, remember?"

 The youngest had been telling this to them a lot. April did too, but Mikey had taken the lead in making his brothers talk post-almost-invasion. Nobody had wanted to open up, but he had made it easier for them. He always did. 

 "I… well… I don't know." Leo began, pulling his knees towards himself. "I don't want you guys to watch them, okay? That was why I wanted to get rid of them but… it felt wrong."

 "Wrong?" Raph repeated.

 "Yeah. At first the idea of deleting them seemed appealing. Getting rid of the evidence of it ever happening sounded so good. And yet, it also sounded… wrong." He whispered. 

 Donnie wasn't sure if he understood it. But he could see why this troubled Leo. The idea of what they'd see in the recordings was what scared Donnie the most in the beginning. Why would it be different for Leo? 

 Though now that Mikey had mentioned, Leo never had gotten into detail about what happened in the Prison Dimension… What was it he didn't want them to know? 

 What was the truth? 

 Raph walked towards the slider, "Leo, if you don't want us to see what happened in the Prison Dimension, we won't." He said comfortingly. "But I don't want you to keep anything that burdens you to yourself."

 "Heh, the same thing goes for you too, Big Guy." Leo smiled slightly. It was nice to see them trying their best to support each other after the past months. 

 He seemed to not understand what Leo meant though. "Wha–"

 "Donnie's spy cameras must have recorded your day too." Leo pointed out. 

 Raph paled. He somehow must've not realized this fact until now. "Nobody watches the records. Not even a second of them."

 Now that was a bit too much! "But–"

 Mikey looked tiredly at Donnie, "You want to show them your time in the technodrome?"

 "What's wrong with Donnie's time in the technodrome?" Raph asked.

 Uh oh. "Let's not talk about this?" 

 "Boys, boys, boys. I think you're missing a point here." April walked between them, arms open to get their attention. "Do you realize that you don't need to watch them? And the actual reason you are in this situation?"

 "Which is..?" Donnie raised a brow.

 "You don't want to relive that day, which I totally get it, by the way." She explained. "But you're avoiding it. You've been avoiding talking about it even a bit. I fully support you guys, take your time and open up when you're ready, but if you're hurting…" 

 Mikey nodded, "Exactly."

 "This goes for you too, Mike." 

 "What?! Why?" Mikey exclaimed, turning to April.

 "Because you can't keep trying to make everyone feel better and push away your issues."

 "I don't." He retorted. 

 "You do." She said with complete confidence. "You keep saying it is fine, but you never really talked about it, did you?"

 “I don’t have anything to talk about? I am dealing with them fine.” Mikey reassured.

 Liar. Donnie thought. He had seen what Mikey had drawn. All the vent art, involving the Krang. They all had seen it.

 Yet, nobody dared to say anything.

 And the room was filled with silence again.

 Donnie watched as Mikey started fidgeting nervously. Subtle, but it was there. And Leo had slightly curled up to himself. Raph and April looked equally worried and stressed. 

 …

 Okay, maybe they had some issues they all should talk about. He didn't like this, but… 

 Knowing those recordings existed made things worse, didn't it? Donnie never wanted to hurt his family. He wouldn't let anyone get hurt ever again.

 "I'll get rid of them." Donnie announced.

 Now all eyes were on him. 

 "What?" Leo asked.

 "I'll get rid of the recordings. So you won't have to worry about them. Don't worry, I will not watch them." Donnie explained.

 "No- wha- Donnie don't." Leo got off the table and approached him. 

 "Why not? It is what's caused all that mess." Donnie said. He was genuine and was trying to help.

 Leo seemed puzzled for a second, not sure what to say. An unusual sight. Donnie waited for his twin to explain. 

 Finally, Leo said quietly, "Donnie, these recordings are the only thing left from there." 

 There? He couldn't mean… "What do you mean?" 

 He sighed. "Look, I-I know this sounds stupid but, deleting the only evidence of-of that damned place… it's like trying to get rid of the fact it ever happened. A-and yes maybe I am trying to ignore it, but thinking-thinking it never happened feels wrong… after… after everything." He took a deep breath. "This is probably the part where you call me dumdum?" He tried to smile and joke. The keyword was “tried”. When would his twin learn that Donnie was the funny one? Donnie looked at him, and noticed how… fragile Leo looked. And maybe he didn't understand his words exactly. Maybe it didn't make that much sense to him. 

 But he could see Leo was hurting.

 Donnie pulled him into a hug.

 "You're a dumdum for thinking of me ever calling you dumdum for talking it out." He said. 

 He heard Leo's small "heh", then he hugged him back tightly. Donnie could see his brothers and sister looking at them softly. Mikey was the first to join the hug, then Raph and April. Donnie could feel Shelldon leaning towards his side as well. 

 It was comforting. 

 After a while they decided to sit down, leaning at each other kind of like before ending up making a "turtle pile". 

 "You know, I agree with Leo." Raph was the first to talk after the comforting silence. "I think we should keep the recordings. Just in case."

 "Just in case?" Mikey asked.

 "It has information against enemies, right?" Raph sounded unsure.

 Donnie hummed, "That's a good point, Raph. There isn't much information about them after all."

 "I still think we shouldn't watch it unless it's necessary." Leo said.

 "I agree." Donnie immediately said. As long as it kept his family well, he didn’t mind. For now. Definitely.

 "Huh, would you look at that, Donnie agreed with me." Leo smirked. "Eating your words from the previous day, I see."

 Ah, here it was. The immediate regret of his actions. "Shut up Nardo."

 "Never.” He smiled evilly.

 Donnie glared at him.

 “So…” April began, “Do you guys wanna talk about it, or we do it another day?” 

 Donnie glanced around, watching his brothers. Nobody seemed to want to talk about it, not yet. But there was something telling Donnie somebody had to say something. Make way, make it easier. (Was it Dr. Feelings’ sessions working?) And that somebody was him, wasn’t it? After all this mess, he owed them to at least tell them what exactly happened there. Mikey kept telling him talking about it would help after all, so why not now?

 It shouldn’t be that hard.

 He looked at his family.

 …

 Theory wrong. It was hard.

 He took a deep breath. Now or never.

 “I will talk.” 

 Once again, all eyes were on him. April smiling softly, Raph surprised, Leo most likely having a mixture of emotions of surprise and… Donnie wasn’t sure what exactly. Was that guilt? And Mikey looked at him with prideful eyes. 

 Suddenly Donnie didn’t want to do this anymore. 

 “Are you sure about that, Donnie?” Raph asked, his voice caring and careful. 

 He nodded. “I must. Or else Mikey will never stop being Dr. Feelings around me… and I am worried he’ll change his mind and use Dr. Delicate Touch against me.” 

 Mikey grinned, while the rest shivered even with the thought. 

 Donnie didn’t want to mention what they might see or hear in the records if they ever had to look at them, and how much it scared him. It had to be him who would tell them what happened.

 And now, it was time. 

[alicewritingstories]

Whumperless Whump Event: Scattered in the Mountains

@whumperless-whump-event

Fandom: Linked Universe

[Previous] << Chapter 2 >> [Next]

Prompts for this chapter:

3: Struggling to stand / "Is the room [ground] spinning, or is it just me?"

4: "I'm used to it"

10: Forced to work (at killing monsters) while ill

11: Hate to be sick

Central characters: Legend and Sky

***

As they walked out of the portal, Legend immediately looked around, alert for any danger. They hadn't yet been ambushed as they left a portal, but there was no reason to get complacent.

There were no monsters, no apparent hazards, and, more worryingly, no sign of the members of the Chain that had walked through ahead of them. Behind him, Legend heard the portal quietly close, leaving only him and Sky.

Sky, who was probably going to continue to insist he wasn't sick despite the fact that his face was flushed, his eyes were glassy, and Legend could hear that he was breathing rapidly even standing still.

And he was standing still, not even looking around on the alert.

"Sky, I can see you're sick," he said with a sigh.

"I'm fine," said Sky, raising half-lidded eyes. "I can manage."

Legend wrinkled his nose as he looked at the taller Hylian, but at this point he was starting to think that if that was the way Sky wanted to be it would be best to let him get on with it for now. He'd talk to one of the others when they found them.

"Right," he said briskly. "Let's see if we can find some high ground and look round for any sign of the others. Maybe we can find some landmarks and figure out where we are."

Sky nodded after a pause that was slightly too long.

Legend let out another huff of breath. He did sympathize - he'd pushed himself plenty of times when he shouldn't have. But it was going to be a problem.

"Come on," he said, and set off up the path, trying not to make it obvious that he was going slowly.

He wasn't subtle enough; after about five minutes of walking Sky murmured, "Sorry, Legend, I'm slowing you down, aren't I?"

Legend sighed. "Yeah, because you're sick."

"Well… also slow."

"Sky, it's… it's fine. We'll just take it easy."

When Legend looked at him, Sky looked like he might actually cry. "I'm too slow," he said again as if Legend hadn't even spoken. "I… I'm always too slow. Being sick just makes it worse."

Legend patted his arm, unsure what to say. "Let's keep going. We can take it easy for now and then you can rest up once we find the others. All you have to do for now is keep walking."

"I hate being sick," mumbled Sky, but kept walking.

About halfway up the rocky hill they were climbing, it started to become clear that Legend wasn't going to be able to keep that promise.

"Monsters," he muttered, standing up from inspecting some tracks. "Lizalfos, maybe? It's something with clawed feet. But the stride isn't right; I can't be sure." He swore under his breath. "We might be in a new era."

Sky nodded and coughed: a nasty, thick, chesty sound.

Normally, they would probably at least check out the situation with the monsters, but Legend wasn't taking Sky anywhere near a monster camp in this state. Fortunately, Sky seemed to have enough self-preservation that he didn't suggest it either and the two of them continued on up the hill, moving more and more slowly, Legend wondering at what point he should mention that Sky's breathing was getting faster and shallower.

The time came when Sky suddenly broke down in another horrible, wet coughing fit. Legend darted back to his side and supported him with an arm around his shoulders as he coughed up and spat out something nasty and green-tinged.

"Sky, you're smarter than this," snapped Legend. "I can hear that you're having problems breathing. We're going to have to stop."

Sky shook his head again and cleared his throat. "I'm used to it," he said. "I can keep going longer. It's… not great, but I can manage."

Legend stepped back and looked around, turning slowly in place as his eyes flicked from one gap between trees to the next and up to the mountainsides he could see beyond, but there was nowhere promising they could stop, especially with monsters around. He growled under his breath.

"Really, Legend -" Sky broke down coughing in the middle of whatever comforting lie he'd been about to tell.

Legend hurried back to his side, though he wasn't sure what he could do and he ended up hovering over his sick brother, his hands outstretched as if to support Sky but not actually touching him.

Again, Sky spat out green-tinged phlegm.

"How much worse is it?" asked Legend.

"The… coughing's new," said Sky, straightening up. "Until now it's just been… a stuffy nose."

Legend reached up to lay a hand on Sky's forehead, but Sky stepped back before he made contact, smiling thinly.

"You don't need to check my temperature," he said firmly.

"I do when I can't trust you to tell me if you have a fever."

"What difference would it make?" asked Sky with a bitter note Legend would have assumed was aimed at him if it came from anyone else. "We have to keep going either way."

Unfortunately, he was right.

"Well, we'll keep an eye out for somewhere we can rest up and find some shelter, OK? The first safe place we see."

Sky wavered for a moment, but then nodded with a heavy sigh that turned into another coughing fit. "OK. Just… just for the night. Maybe some sleep will help me shake it off."

Legend nodded and asked a question he already knew the answer to. "You've been making sure you get enough rest, right?"

"I'm -"

"Don't lie to me."

Sky winced. "I'm not. It's just… I just don't want to hold us up. I know I'm slower and less accustomed to traveling far on land and that I can't cope with as much exertion, so I have to try harder. You know that."

Legend had thought they were past this stage with Sky, but he didn't argue; once again, if that was how Sky wanted to be, Legend could let him get on with it for now. He just scoffed softly and walked on, keeping his pace slow and making sure Sky was keeping up. With any luck, they'd soon find shelter.

Luck tended to be in short supply for the Chain, but he could still hope.

As they walked, he kept his eyes on the ground, watching for the few traces of monster tracks that showed up in damper, softer patches of earth. It was increasingly clear that this was a dangerous area and the monsters were using this road, but it couldn't be helped. Normally, he might have gotten under cover, tried to make his way across country and just keep an eye on the road from a distance, but Sky wouldn't be able to do that.

If he could find somewhere safe to hide Sky, perhaps he could track down those monsters and deal with the camp they presumably had in the area. That would at least be a weight off his mind. Hopefully he could persuade Sky to wait for him somewhere out of sight.

But he didn't get a chance to find out. They heard an unfamiliar hissing noise and there was just enough time for Legend to draw his sword and put himself in front of Sky before a large lizard scuttled into view.

Legend stared at the unfamiliar form for a split second before it took a deep breath and he realized what was about to happen. Sky had apparently realized too and even as Legend went to shove him to the side he was already diving, drawing the Master Sword.

The stream of fire the lizard breathed out passed harmlessly between them.

In moments, they both had their shields on their arms and were flanking the new monster, but Legend could hear that Sky was struggling; his breathing was too loud, too fast, especially given that the fight had only just begun.

"Sky, get back!" he shouted as his sword skated off the hard scales on the monster's head. "I'll handle this!"

Sky didn't even try to reply; he dashed past the lizard and Legend saw that a second was scurrying through the trees. With a hissed curse, he slashed at the first one again as it spun round and started to inhale again, aiming for its eyes this time. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sky stab downwards into the second one, stumbling to his knees as he threw his whole weight behind the blow.

One more better-placed cut took off the lizard's head and Legend turned to help Sky as it dissolved into smoke, but the downwards stab had done the job; Sky's was fading away too.

Sky, meanwhile, was still on his knees, coughing hard. As Legend reached him, he struggled half up, then stumbled back down.

"Easy, Sky," said Legend, resting a hand on his shoulder.

"Is… is the ground spinning, or is it just me?" asked Sky with a humorless laugh that turned into a cough.

"It's you," said Legend. "Take it easy, OK? Just breathe." He looked around, gnawing his lip. They had to find somewhere to shelter. There was no way Sky could go on like this.

Sky, meanwhile, had managed to calm his breathing back down to an uncomfortable wheeze and he started to get up carefully, leaning heavily on Legend's shoulder.

"There are probably caves in these mountains," said Legend. "We're going to find one and stay there until you're recovered."

This time, Sky didn't argue.